Aluminium of Greece ties-up with GE to enhance its aluminium smelting process

<p>GE and Aluminium of Greece (AOG), a Mytilineos Group subsidiary, yesterday signed a 10- year contract in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates to create the world&rsquo;s first-of-their-kind digital smelter solutions to improve AOG&rsquo;s aluminium smelting process and help the company to drive additional output and efficiency while reducing raw material consumption, energy consumption, and pot leakages.<br /><br /><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/ELIT5853.jpg" alt="News" width="517" height="226" /><br />The digital solutions will be created by GE&rsquo;s teams in the US and the UAE and the facility that the solutions will be implemented is located in Agios Nikolaos, Viotia, Greece.<br /><br />GE&rsquo;s digital solutions for aluminium smelting are powered by Predix, GE&rsquo;s operating system for the Industrial Internet. The digital solutions for smelting process will set a benchmark in the aluminium industry.<br /><br />Dimitris Stefanidis, CEO of Aluminium of Greece, said, &ldquo;As the largest vertically integrated bauxite, alumina and aluminium production and trading unit in the European Union, we are constantly looking at innovative technologies to enhance our performance standards.&rdquo;<br /><br />Joseph Anis, president &amp; CEO of GE&rsquo;s Power Services business in the Middle East and Africa, explained, &ldquo;By bringing together the strengths of our multi-locational teams and GE Power&rsquo;s Digital Smelter Center of Excellence in Dubai, we will collaborate with AOG to create a new chapter in the history of smelting operations as well.&rdquo;<br /><br />{googleAdsense}<br /><br />Bhanu Shekhar, chief digital officer for GE Power, stated, &ldquo;This is a living digital model that will continuously generate smelter data, and will be a game changer in helping to address the challenges of power usage and the consumption of raw materials in the smelting industry.&rdquo;<br /><br />A one per cent increase in efficiency of aluminium smelter operations can contribute to an annual global savings of $970 million across the total cost of production, $936 million in output increase, and $464 million in operations and maintenance costs.<br /><br />Presently, in the GCC region, the aluminium smelting industry represents up to ten per cent of the world&rsquo;s total production.</p>