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Aluminium International Today January/February 2009
A summary of existing and new-build
smelters in the Middle East
Expansions and new-build smelter projects currently under way in Middle East countries will add over 6Mt
of capacity to the region in the next five years. This article summarises these projects and existing capacity.
In recent decades, those countries in the
Middle East exploiting rich reserves of oil
and natural gas have looked for ways of
diversifying their industries from reliance on
petrochemicals to develop other primary and
downstream industries.
A combination of low cost fuel for
electricity generation and a suitable
geographic location to supply the markets of
Europe and to import raw materials from
Australia, Brazil and West Africa, has enabled
production of primary aluminium to be one
of the ways of achieving this goal.
Bahrain, UAE, Egypt, Iran, and most
recently, Oman, have already developed
significant primary aluminium production as
a way of achieving diversification. Qatar, and
Saudi Arabia are in the process of building
smelters to the extent that 5.7Mt/y of new
capacity is currently under construction in
the Gulf region. While the current drop in
demand may delay some of the expansion
plans, most will continue in anticipation of
recovery in 2010. However, in particular, the
advent of a developing international market
for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), is leading
to some governments showing reluctance to
commit more of their valuable but finite gas
reserves to smelters.
This article summarises existing and new
projects in the region.
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba)
Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) was the first
aluminium smelter to be built in the Middle
East. It started with a modest capacity of
120kt/y. Now, after several expansion
projects, Albas production capacity has
increased to 870kt/y.
Alba was officially opened in 1971, and its
shareholders today are the Bahrain
Murritalakat Holding Company (77%),
SABIC (Saudi Arabia) Industrial Investments
(20%) and Breton Investments (3%).
Alba has a comprehensive aluminium
smelting process. As well as its five reduction
lines and its cast houses, Alba has a dedicated
carbon department, a 600kt/y coke calcining
plant the only smelter in the world to have
its own calciner, it is self-sufficient in power
generation with a 2300MW power station,
and has a water desalination plant at the
companys marine terminal which also
supplies part of the general population.
The entire plant operates to the
Environmental Management System
standard ISO 14001:2004 and the Quality
Management System ISO 9001:2000.
Alba has always contributed to Bahrains
economic and social development, which is
translated into providing jobs and training
opportunities for young Bahrainis. Alba
earned the GCC-wide award for Human
Resources Development in recognition of
its outstanding Bahrainisation levels of
almost 90%.
The company has won a number of other
prestigious awards, including the inaugural
Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman AI Khalifa Award
for Industrial Excellence, Shaikh Mohamed
bin Rashid AI Maktoom Arab Management
Award Outstanding Arab Organisation
category, RoSPA Safety Award, and it was the
first company to receive the International
Millennium Business Award for
Environmental Achievement presented by
the United Nations Environment Programme.
Alba also fuels a thriving downstream
industry in Bahrain, by supplying over 45% of
its production to local downstream
companies. Thus, Alba contributes nearly
12% of Bahrains GDP.
A sixth potline is pending construction but
is awaiting approval of long-term gas supplies
by the Bahraini government which needs to
import gas from Saudi Arabia or Qatar to
supplement Bahrains dwindling domestic
resources.
Smelter projects under way in the Gulf countries (note excludes Egypt and Iran)
Dubal with a capacity of 1Mt/y is ranked as the seventh
largest producer of primary aluminium in the world
Albas 870kt/y capacity is now constrained by lack
of gas in Bahrain
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Also, feasibility studies for two privately
owned smelters proposed to be built at
Kerman and Sabzevar are under way.
Because of growing demands for aluminium
in the country, Iran imports more than
200kt/y of aluminium mostly from Dubal,
Alba, Rusal and some Chinese companies.
Iran has its own bauxite deposits which are
blended with imported bauxite to obtain
higher qualities. The raw material for
aluminium production is mainly imported
from India and West Africa. The countrys
first refinery plant, Iran Alumina Co, is
located near the bauxite mine at Jajarm
(Khorasan), and has a capacity of 200kt/y of
refined alumina and is likely to reach its
design capacity of 280kt/y in a few years
time. At this stage it is able to provide most of
the alumina needs of the two smelters.
There are also large reserves of Nepheline
Syenite in Iran which can be processed for
alumina production and attention is being
given to these more difficult ores to process to
produce alumina. A plant for this is under
construction in Sarab (East Azarbaijan
Province). This plant is designed to produce
200kt/y of alumina. Also, IMIDRO has a
programme to transport bauxite from a mine
it operates in Guinea and is constructing an
alumina refinery on the Persian Gulf.
Sohar Aluminium (Oman)
Sohar Aluminum Company was formed in
September 2004 to undertake a landmark
US$2.4bn greenfield aluminum smelter
project in the Sultanate of Oman.
Dubai Aluminium Co (DUBAL)
The construction of the Dubal smelter
started in 1977, under the patronage of His
Highness the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed AI
Maktourn. The first metal was tapped and
cast in 1979, followed by the first metal sales
in 1980.
Dubal is ranked as the seventh largest
producer of primary aluminium in the world,
and is currently the largest single-site
aluminium smelter complex in the Western
world using pre-baked anode technology.
The company is the single largest non-oil
contributor to the economy of Dubai. Built
on a 480-hectare site in Jebel Ali near Dubai,
UAE, Dubals major facilities comprise a
950kt/y primary aluminium smelter, a
2100MW power station, a large carbon plant,
three casthouses, a 30-million-gallon-per-day
water desalination plant, laboratories, port
and storage facilities.
The company has the capacity to produce
more than 1Mt of high quality finished
aluminium products a year, in three main
forms: foundry alloy for automotive
applications, extrusion billet for construction
purposes and high purity aluminium for the
electronics industry.
Dubal serves 290 customers in 46 countries
predominantly in the Far East, Europe, the
ASEAN region, the Middle East and
Mediterranean region, and North America.
The company holds ISO 9001, ISO/TS 16949,
ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001
certification; and has twice won the Dubai
Quality Award in the Production and
Manufacturing sector (1996 and 2000).
Egyptalum
In 1972 a scheme was initiated on the banks
of the river Nile which was to culminate in
the completion of the second aluminium
smelter to be built in the Middle East.
Egyptalums aluminium plant is situated at
Nag Hammady, some 100km north of Luxor.
Nag Hammady is unique in several ways;
the development has risen from the barren
desert, to realise one of the most technologic-
ally advanced sites of its kind. Also a city has
been established alongside the plant to provide
every amenity from hospitals to stadiums and
housing set in tree lined avenues.
Egyptalum is a public-sector body that
started production in 1975. In 1983, the
annual production reached the design
capacity of 166kt. As a result of the
continuous development in performance of
employees and equipment, the annual
production capacity reached 181kt in 1993
from five pot lines with a total of 460 cells
operating at 155kA using vertical stud
Soderberg cells.
In view of the company strategy of
exporting a fixed proportion of its
production, Egyptalum has foreseen the
importance of increasing output. The
company decided to increase productivity by
transformation its existing Soderberg cells to
prebaked anode cells and by building a sixth
potline. Work starting on this strategy in
1997. In 2007, output reached 265kt. By the
end of 2010 the annual capacity of the
smelter is planned to reach 320kt.
Iran
The two primary producers in Iran are Iralco
(Iran Aluminium Co) with more than 30
years of aluminium smelting experience and
Almahdi Aluminum Co in Bandar Abbas near
the Persian Gulf. At present Iralcos and
Almahdis production are about 130kt and
110kt a year respectively. Each of these
companies has their own anode plants. Iralco
plans to build a new carbon plant in the next
three years. Recently Iralco started
construction of a new greenfield smelter with
final capacity of 110kt/y. The first phase of
this smelter, with a capacity of 33kt/y, has
started operations and is expected to reach
full capacity by Q3 2009.
Iralcos production consists of ingots,
extrusion billets and rolling slab. Most of
Almahdis production is pure aluminium
ingot both for the domestic market and for
export. Based on the development
programme, it is expected that the capacity of
aluminium production in Iran will be 900kt/y
in 2011. The expansion plans under
constructing and supervised by the Iranian
Mines and Mineral Industries Development
and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO) are
summarised in Table 1.
Plant Capacity Location
(kt/y)
Iralco New phase 110 Arak
Hormozal 147 Bandar Abbas
Almahdis expansion
(U Plant) 23 Bandar Abbas
South Aluminium (Salco) 276 Lamerd
Jajarm Aluminium 36 Jajarm
Table 1: Construction of new plants in Iran under the
supervision of IMIDRO
Construction of new plants in Iran will add nearly 600kt/y of new capacity by 2011 making the total 900kt.
Iralco is commissioning a new 110kt/y greenfield smelter
in Iran
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Located 11km inland from the port of
Sohar the smelter produced its first metal in
June 2008. The project shareholders are the
Oman Oil Company (40%), Abu Dhabi
Electricity & Water Authority (ADWEA 40%)
and Rio Tinto Alcan (20%).
Using Rio Tinto Alcan AP smelter
technology the project involves the
construction of a single 360 pot AP35 potline
with a capacity of approximately 350kt/y; a
carbon anode plant; a metal casting facility;
and a port for product storage and ship
loading and unloading. When complete, the
potline will be the largest single potline in
the world. Full production is expected to be
reached in the first half of 2009.
Products will include liquid metal
transferred to local downstream businesses
by crucible, and primary ingots and sows for
export. Of the total annual capacity of 350kt,
60% will be sold to the local market.
The smelter consists of:
A carbon plant to supply 183 anodes per
shift, (200000 anodes per year) and will
employ approximately 160 personnel;
A potline which will be the worlds longest
(over 1.2km) containing 360 pots using the
latest AP35 technology. The potline
operating current is 350kA, producing 350kt
of metal a year or 2700kg per pot per day.
A Casthouse with two automated ingot
casting lines and a sow caster. The casthouse
will cast up to 350kt of aluminium a year.
The port facility at Sohar comprises a bulk
material ship unloader with connecting
conveyors to two alumina silos, each of
60kt capacity; and two coke silos, each of
15kt capacity. There is also a liquid pitch
receiving facility with two 5kt capacity
liquid pitch tanks.
A dedicated 1000MW captive power
generation plant is under construction at
Sohar port. The Sohar Aluminium power
plant is being procured under a lump sum
turnkey contract with Alstom and will
deliver around 650MW to the smelter on a
continuous basis without interruption.
The power plant also includes a
desalination plant to supply water for the
heat recovery steam generators and also
provide water for the smelter.
The primary fuel for the plant is natural
gas, which is transported to the site via a new
gas pipeline from the existing Port Pressure
Reduction Terminal to the Gas Metering
Facility, located within the Sohar Aluminium
power plant site.
Fume treatment plants for the potline and
the green anode plant as well as four tilting
holding furnaces for the casthouse and the
liquid pitch marine terminal are supplied by
Fives Solios.
Emirates Aluminium (EMAL)
Emal is a 50:50 joint venture between Dubai
Aluminium Company Ltd (Dubal) and
Mubadala Development Company (Mubadala)
the investment vehicle of the Emirate of Abu
Dhabi. Emal was established in February 2007
to construct what will become the worlds
largest single site aluminium smelter complex.
The project is being built in two 700kt phases.
The first phase will cost approximately $ 5.7bn
and will result in 756 reduction cells arranged
in two pot lines and will use Dubals DX-350
cell technology. An on-site 2000MW power
plant, anode manufacturing plant and multi-
product cast house are all part of phase one. At
the end of phase one in April 2010, Emal will
be able to produce 700kt/y of aluminium and
the completion of phase two planned for
January 2011 will raise this to 1.4Mt/y. The
smelter complex occupies a 6km
2
site in the
Khalifa Port Industrial Zone in Taweelah, half
way between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and will
produce primary aluminium with a product
mix of sow, standard ingot, billet and rolling
ingot.
Being the largest industrial project in the
UAE outside the oil and gas industry, the
project will encourage economic
diversification, creating downstream
opportunities. This development will benefit
the UAE economy, employing more than
14 000 local and international contractors
and staff during construction and 1800
people direct employment during operations.
Emal adheres to strict environmental
standards set by the Abu Dhabi
Environmental Agency, with state-of the-art
emission control equipment including sea
water sulphur-dioxide scrubbers for the
carbon plant, the latest potroom gas
treatment technology from Alstom to capture
fluoride and sulphur dioxide emissions and
the best-available CHP gas turbine systems
for power generation with cooling towers
supplied by SPIG of Italy to eliminate
thermal stress on local marine life when
coolant is discharged to the sea.
The gas fired power station is being
equipped with General Electric generators and
will have an initial generating capacity of
2000MW to be increased to 3600MW for
phase two. It will use gas and steam CHP
turbines for maximum efficiency. Gas supplies
and prices have been guaranteed for a 30 year
period.
Qatar Aluminium
Qatar Aluminium (Qatalum) will be the
worlds largest primary aluminium plant ever
built in one step. However, it will also be the
most expensive at an estimated specific
capital cost of $7265/t of capacity. The plant
will have a capacity in the first phase of 585kt
of primary aluminium, all to be shipped as
value added aluminium casthouse products.
It is a 50:50 joint venture between Qatar
Petroleum of Qatar and Norsk Hydro ASA of
Norway.
The Qatalum venture is ideally located to
meet the growing demand for aluminium in
Asia and the rest of the world. When
conceived, the anticipated annual global
demand growth for primary aluminium was
5% for the coming decade.
Qatalum is based on strong strategic
fundamentals, and can draw on the support
and know how of the two partners behind the
project.
Qatar Petroleum provides a combination of
long-term competitive energy resources, an
industrial infrastructure and location suitable
for this large project.
Hydro is responsible for the execution of
the construction of the project. Hydro is a
leading integrated, global aluminium
company and a technology and R&D leader
in the industry with close to a century of
experience of aluminium production. Hydro
also holds leading positions in markets for
aluminium metal products and has a strong
record in the execution of large projects.
The facility consists of:
Two potlines of 352 pots each using 300kA
cells based on Hydros HAL275 technology.
Liquid metal capacity is 585kt/y.
Two product casthouses producing 335kt of
extrusion ingot and 275kt of foundry alloys
a year;
A carbon plant producing 300kt of anodes a
year;
Emal, the second smelter to be built in UAE, will be the worlds largest single site aluminium smelter with phase one
opening in April 2010 with a capacity of 700kt/y
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A dedicated gas fired power plant with an
installed capacity of 1350MW;
Fume treatment plant for all areas of the
plant (potline, carbon plant, casthouse and
conveying) supplied by Fives Solios (See
AIT May June 2008 p37).
Located in Mesaieed Industrial City, 40km
south of Doha, the capital of Qatar,
production start-up is planned by the end of
2009 with full production reached during
2010. Space has been allocated for a second
phase of construction to bring capacity up to
1.2Mt/y.
Qatalum will employ approximately
1100 workers from more than 25
nationalities.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is, apart from Iran, the only
other Middle East country with exploitable
bauxite reserves. At present, it has no smelter
or alumina refinery but plans to exploit these
reserves to produce up to 2Mt of metal a year,
eventually.
Two projects are currently under way,
Jazan Aluminium to build a 720kt/y smelter
by 2011-12 in a joint venture between the
Saudi Binladin Group of Malaysia, Chalco of
China and MMC Corp (China).
The other project, Maaden, scheduled for
start of production in 2011, was initially a
joint equity venture between Saudi Arabia
Mining and Rio Tinto Alcan with plans to
build an alumina refinery and smelter at Ras
Az Zawr to exploit the local bauxite deposits.
The two partners held 49% and 51% equity in
the project respectively, but in December
2008, Rio Tinto Alcan relinquished its equity
share but will continue as technology
provider. This is expected to delay the project
by at least 12 months.
Total output from the $10bn refinery and
smelter combined is planned to be 750kt/y of
which the smelter would account for around
170kt/y of metal production. Capital costs per
tonne of metal produced are estimated at
$5950/t reflecting the high cost of build in
Gulf countries.
This is the second project in the region
that Rio Tinto has been thwarted in. Earlier
plans to build a smelter in the Emirate of
Abu Dhabi at Ruwais in partnership with
Abu Dhabi Aluminium Co with an initial
capacity of 550kt/y and expansion plans to
2Mt/y have failed to come to fruition due
to the lack of agreement with the
government on long-term gas supplies for
the project.
Rio Tintos investment in the region is thus
presently limited to a 20% holding in Sohar
Aluminium in Oman.
Presently, the company is suffering from a
combination of the current downturn in
demand for metal and ores, and from
financing a close to $40bn net debt partly
incurred by the acquisition of Alcan last year.
It is thus unlikely to pursue further
investment in the region in the present
climate.
Pneumatic conveyance
of alumina by Fluidcon
Claudius Peters has developed a low velocity pneumatic conveying
system for alumina which uses a combination of a driving gas and a
fluidising gas thus doing away with the need for an inclined airslide
resulting in reduced maintenance and energy requirements.
The Fluidcon cell feeding (FCF) system is a
pneumatic feeding system for aluminium
reduction cells which combines the
advantages of the airslide design with
conventional pneumatic pipe conveying.
FCFs most important point is that it is
possible to fluidise and convey alumina at low
pressures so saving on energy and therefore
substantially reducing operating costs when
compared with conventional pipe conveying
systems.
FCF was developed by Claudius Peters of
Germany, which has applied its extensive
knowledge of the constructive characteristics
of alumina distribution and feeding systems
for aluminium reduction cells in aluminium
smelters.
The general control philosophy comprise
all components from the upstream interface,
(secondary alumina silo), to the downstream
interfaces above the potline cells. The
pneumatic transport and intermediate
storage of alumina from the secondary
alumina silo is decoupled from the
electrolysis cells when using the pneumatic
FCF to convey alumina to the reductions
cells.
The operating characteristic of the system
results in extremely low transport velocity,
low energy consumption and minimised wear
and maintenance.
FCF contain no mechanical valves inside
the material flow and uses standard steel
pipes with aeration pads, which can be
removed easily if necessary for maintenance.
The gas flow is divided into a fluidising gas
and a driving gas. The distribution of the
fluidising gas is controlled and fed along the
conveying pipe to fluidise the bulk alumina.
The driving gas flow is fed into the silo end of
the conveying pipe and replaces the
inclination of a conventional airslide. Due to
the fluidisation, the alumina is transformed
into a fluid-like state with nearly no internal
friction and is lifted off the bottom of the
conveying pipe and introduced into the flow
of the driving gas. Therefore the alumina is
not abrading the internal conveying pipe
wall.
Results show that the Fluidcon cell feeding
system is relatively insensitive to varying
operating conditions and disturbances and
can be adjusted easily to the prevailing
construction configuration and operating
conditions It is also possible to implement
this system into existing plant.
FCF meets the requirements of increasing
ecological awareness, stricter regulations on
emissions, and the growing need for
industrial safety.
Contact: Andreas Wolf Business Development
Manager Aluminium
Claudius Peters Group GmbH, Schanzenstrae 40
D-21614 Buxtehude, Germany
Tel +49 4161 706310, Fax +49 4161 7067310
email andreas.wolf@claudiuspeters.com
web www.claudiuspeters.com
Fig 1: The Fluidcon cell feeding system combines a fluidising gas with a driving gas
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