Low-carbon aluminium introduced to region
Masdar and Gulf Extrusions team up to develop and supply a new ‘eco-metal’
An environmentally-friendly aluminium product, developed by Gulf Extrusions in conjunction with the Masdar Institute, is being rolled out for wider use across the region.
The “green aluminium”, which produces 50% less carbon, was developed two years ago in conjunction with Masdar and manufacturer ALCAN, it received its first application 18 months ago and is now available to the wider GCC market through supplier Gulf Extrusions. Green aluminium contains 80% recycled materials and can be recycled indefinitely.
“From an environmental point of view the energy consumed to recycle aluminium is only 5% of the energy required to smelt virgin aluminium. To smelt one metric ton of aluminium you need 15,000 kilowatts of power, but secondary production only requires 750 kilowatts,” said GM Modar Mohammed Al Mekdad.
In addition, the alternative material is produced generating almost half the C02 of traditional methods. Traditional materials produce 11kg of C02 per ton of aluminium; this product produces 5.7kg.
“The material is being specified gradually, but this is still the beginning and there are no rules to make its use mandatory. I believe in the coming years as awareness increases, demand will increase dramatically,” Al Mekdad added.
Gulf Extrusions has also recently launched a thermally broken windows and doors system.
