DUBAL again endorses WETEX 2013 through strategic sponsorship

Committed to innovation through technology, yet equally dedicated to protecting the environment. This has been the approach taken by Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) to the establishment and advancement of its operations over the three decades since the company’s inception in 1979. Indeed, by incorporating advancing technologies in a series of successive expansion projects, DUBAL’s hot metal production capacity has increased more than seven-fold over the past 33 years – but without increasing the operations’ environmental impact either through fossil-fuel consumption for power generation or emissions to the atmosphere. The success of this approach underscores DUBAL’s repeat participation at this year’s Water Energy Technology and Environment Exhibition (“WETEX 2013”), again as a Strategic Sponsor of the event.

Held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre from 15 to 17 April 2013, the focus of WETEX 2013 is on advanced technologies in the areas of energy (i.e. fossil fuel, nuclear, renewable, power generation, smart grids, efficiency, conservation); water (i.e. management, treatment, desalination, utilities); and environment (i.e. waste management, green buildings and CO₂ reduction solutions). The event aims to bring together the scientific, engineering, technology, and management communities, thereby facilitating strategic partnerships to pursue innovative and sustainable solutions that will support the efforts of governmental agencies and civic authorities in these three key areas (i.e. water, energy and the environment).

Accordingly, the DUBAL stand at WETEX 2013 will highlight the company’s world-leading in-house developed DX and DX+ reduction cell technologies that, by operating at higher amperages, not only increase productivity but also reduce the impact of DUBAL’s smelter operations on the environment through improved energy efficiency and minimised emission levels. The spotlight will also fall on DUBAL’s commitment to energy conservation, specifically the fuel-efficiency enabled by the unique cogeneration configuration of the company’s captive 2,350 megawatt power station (at 30˚C); and its energy-saving successes achieved through implementing a combination of the initiatives mandated by the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (“DSCE”) in terms of the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy (“DIES”) 2030 and DUBAL’s own innovations in this area. This will be further endorsed by illustrating DUBAL’s successful and sustained achievement of the highest standards in environmental protection, from optimizing raw material usage through effective energy-use management to minimizing environmental impact through stringent management of air emissions, effluent discharge and waste.

DUBAL will further support the efforts of WETEX 2013 to share expertise and promote best practices by participating in the seminars and round-table discussions being hosted in parallel to the exhibition. Tayeb Al Awadhi (Vice President: Power & Desalination) will deliver a presentation on the absorption chiller installed at DUBAL as a pilot project to further maximize the energy available at its Power and Desalination (P&D) plants, with the main objective being to reduce energy consumption and subsequently reduce the carbon footprint of the plant. The absorption chiller utilizes available steam in DUBAL’s P&D plant, without compromising the power and desalination processes, to produce chilled water for the air-conditioning units which are currently operated by electrically-driven chillers. The project is the first of its kind in a power plant in the UAE and is expected to reduce power consumption by approximately 60 per cent. For this pilot project, it is estimated that 1 tonne of steam will produce sufficient cooling for a building that currently consumes an estimated 1 million kWh per year for the same purpose. 

With a hot metal production capacity in excess of one million metric tonnes per year, DUBAL’s Jebel Ali complex ranks as the world’s largest single-site primary aluminium smelter using pre-baked anode technology. DUBAL is internationally renowned for its premium purity, high quality products; and exports about 90 per cent of its annual production to about 57 countries across the globe. The company, which is widely acknowledged as the UAE’s industrial flagship, places the safety and health of its employees above other priorities. DUBAL also owns 50 per cent of Emirates Aluminium (“EMAL”) in Al Taweelah, Abu Dhabi, where the first phase of construction is complete and the full capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year is in operation. Construction of EMAL Phase II, which will increase EMAL’s total production capacity to 1.3 million tonnes per year, began mid-2011. In addition, DUBAL holds shares in upstream development projects within the bauxite/alumina and calcined petroleum coke sectors.