If it goes ahead, the carbon capture scheme will be carried out in connection with its captive power plant which will have initial capacity of 2,000 MW, according to Duncan Hedditch chief executive officer of Emal.

“We are in technical discussions about carbon dioxide capture and sale,” said Hedditch, while speaking at MEED’s Middle East Aluminium conference in Dubai on 18 February. “We have established space on the site for this purpose but it has not yet been decided whether it will be in phase one or phase two.”

He said the talks have involved a number of potential partners including Abu Dhabi’s Masdar.

Phase 1 will also have a 2 million gallon-a-day (g/d) water treatment plant.

Emal’s second phase calls for production to rise to 1.4 million tonnes of aluminium. It will lift power production to 3,600MW.

Emal is a 50:50 joint venture between Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Company. Work on the project started in May.

Hedditch said that the budget for the project is $5.6bn