Abdulnasser Bin Kalban

Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Global Aluminium

HOW ARE YOU CREATING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR THE REGION?

Aluminium plays an essential role in decarbonisation economy-wide, as part of everything from solar panels to electric vehicles to mass transit systems. EGA produces one-in-every 25 tonnes of aluminium made worldwide, and our metal is a UAE contribution to the global drive to avert the worst impacts of climate change. It also matters how sustainably aluminium is made. At EGA, we believe the environmental, social and governance aspects of sustainability are all important. We fully recognise the essential challenge of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions and are playing our part in achieving the UAE’s Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. We are embedding sustainability in everything we do and aim to be a sustainability leader for our global industry, including taking bold steps towards decarbonisation.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU FACE?

Aluminium demand is expected to increase by between 50 and 80% by 2050, because it plays such a key role in decarbonising other industries. But decarbonising aluminium production itself requires cooperation with other industries and re-thinking the way aluminium has been made since the dawn of our industry in the 19th century.

Aluminium production is energy-intensive, and generating the electricity required accounts for around 60% of the global aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The electrolytic smelting process also creates greenhouse gas emissions and solving this requires technology development to eliminate these emissions or capture them.

HOW ARE YOU OVERCOMING SAID CHALLENGES?

We have been focused on reducing our energy demand per tonne of aluminium produced for decades, to save both cost and emissions. We have developed our own aluminium smelting technology for more than 25 years. This technology development and earlier work since 1980, has reduced the amount of electricity required per tonne of aluminium produced by over 37%.

We are now taking bolder steps towards decarbonization as the UAE’s energy transition creates opportunity for us to decarbonise our electricity supply. In 2021, we became the first company in the world to make aluminium commercially using the power of the sun through a partnership with Dubai Electricity & Water Authority. We call this metal CelestiAL, and it accounts for a proportion of our production today. This is just the beginning.

We have already announced a strategic initiative with TAQA, Dubal Holding and EWEC to divest our natural gas-fired power plants, and instead source electricity from the grid. Adding our engines to the grid offers significant efficiencies for the grid as a whole. But even more than that, EGA would become the largest single customer on the grid. Our steady demand would improve the predictability of total power demand. This would unlock the potential for others to develop more solar power – in fact, more than the total installed solar power capacity in the UAE today.

We are also working to address the other sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our operations. We have joined the Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure’s Hydrogen Leadership Initiative, to progress the development of hydrogen in the UAE. Hydrogen could be used to decarbonise our thermal power needs. And we are exploring how to decarbonise the smelting process itself.