EGA files new patents for in-house developed innovations

Emirates Global Aluminium (“EGA”), has filed four new patents that increase productivity and operating efficiencies. The patent applications result from EGA’s technology development programme, which has focused on continual improvement for the past 25 years.

EGA’s latest reduction technology, DX+ Ultra, has more than double the pot productivity of the company’s original D18 technology.  Last year EGA licensed DX+ Ultra to Aluminium Bahrain for Alba’s potline 6 expansion, making EGA the first UAE industrial company to license its own large scale industrial technology internationally.


The four recent patent applications target improvements in the electrolytic Hall-Héroult process, used to produce metallic aluminium from aluminium oxide, and are detailed below.

Bi-metallic insert in the cathode collector bar

Bernard Jonqua (Manager, Technology Potlining, Technology Development & Transfer) and Abdalla Alzarouni (Vice President, Technology Development & Transfer) have devised an innovative cathode block assembly, incorporating a novel bi-metallic insert (copper and aluminium) that serves to optimise the current collection of the traditional steel cathode collector bar, decreasing voltage drop in the cell and reducing energy consumption. The voltage gained can be used to reduce the production cost of the aluminium, or to increase the production of the pot by increasing the current at constant power.

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Copper electrical contact in cathode assembly

Jonqua and Alzarouni have also developed a cathode assembly in which rectangular copper inserts are placed on top of the steel cathode collector bars. The copper inserts extend to the end of the collector bar and carry most of the current between the cathode and the busbar. The copper inserts decrease the total voltage drop of the cathode, improving energy consumption.

Five pots at EGA’s Jebel Ali smelter operation have been operating with this copper insert design for over three years. This simple-to-manufacture cathode assembly is designed for use in a Hall-Héroult electrolysis cell, but could also be used in other electrolytic processes.

Split anode riser busbar system

Vinko Potocnik (Senior Manager, Technology Transfer, Technology Development & Transfer) and Marwan Bastaki (formerly Engineer: R&D, Technology Development & Transfer) have developed a unique cathode busbar system that balances the electrical current distribution in the cathode collector bars. The resulting optimal electrical equilibrium within the reduction cell effectively minimises magnetohydrodynamic (“MHD”) instabilities and allows the appropriate anode-to-cathode distance to be maintained. In turn, this lowers the electrical resistance and associated voltage drop of the cell, reducing energy consumption.

Novel potline energising procedure

Nadia Ahli (Associate Manager, Technology Development & Transfer) and Sajid Hussain (Supervisor, Technology Transfer, Technology Development & Transfer) have designed a unique busbar system that facilitates the start-up of an electrolysis potline, as well as the total or partial shut-down of the potline. The system described in the patent application features a specific, step-by-step implementation procedure for these scenarios.

The innovation also facilitates potline (or individual pot) start-up, section by section – starting with the section adjacent to the rectifier substation. This allows the plant to start operating the first sector(s) while the subsequent ones are being built or completed.