Aluminium Bahrain (Alba), the world's largest aluminium smelter outside China, said it has become one of the fastest expansion projects to be ever commissioned in the aluminium industry, with its  Potline 6 passing the final performance tests within 23 months, thus beating the average of 30 months for other similar industrial projects.

Announcing the key milestone, Alba’s Chairman of the Board of Directors Shaikh Daij bin Salman bin Daij Al Khalifa today (December 29) said: "We are also very pleased to have completed Line 6 construction with a Capex less than $4,000 per metric tonne of aluminium produced, which is lower than the average Capex of other projects in the industry."

"Also, selected pots in Potline 6 have passed the final performance tests with results exceeding the guarantees under the Technology Transfer Agreement between Alba and Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA)," stated Shaikh Daij.

Alba said it had chosen EGA’s proprietary DX+ Ultra Technology for Potline 6 to boost its metal production.

The DX+ Ultra Technology was originally committed to operate at 460kA, (as per the contractual terms with EGA); however, Potline 6 is currently operating successfully at 465kA (5kA above the original design) when the current efficiency achieved is 95% with energy consumption standing at 12.87 kilowatt hours per kg of aluminium produced.

In addition, Potline 6 outperformed some of the other EGA-guaranteed parameters - the production capacity of each reduction cell is 11% higher while energy consumption is 1% better.

On this achievement, Alba’s Acting CEO Ali Al Baqali said: "We are very proud of our team for establishing a new benchmark for potline start-up in the industry as we have managed to start about 4.5 pots per day at some point then reaching a peak of 8 pots per day."

Lauding EGA, its technology provider for Alba’s Potline 6 project, Al Baqali said the Emirati group had done a wonderful job as was evident with the exceptional results of the final performance guarantee tests.

"Utilising EGA’s DX+ Ultra - one of the most efficient technologies in the world – has contributed to reduce overall Green House Gas emissions, which is in line with our sustainability objectives towards the environment," he added.

Managing Director and CEO Abdulla Kalban said: "EGA is pleased to have been chosen as the technology provider for Alba’s Potline 6 - a landmark project in the Middle East. We are also equally delighted to have gone beyond our commitments in the final performance tests, which speaks volumes about the reliability and performance of EGA’s DX+ Ultra technology."

Alba had selected EGA’s DX+ technology for Line 6 Bankable Feasibility Study in 2014 then later on upgrading to EGA’s DX+ Ultra Technology in February 2016, he added.-TradeArabia News Service