Case Study: Dubai Aluminium achieves 6% higher output, lower emissions and greater fuel flexibility with GE Digital's OpFlex Advanced Controls

Greater Output, Lower Emissions and Ability to Manage Varying Fuel Quality for Power-Intense Dubai

Dubai Aluminium (Dubal), the world's second-largest aluminum smelter operating a 2,350 MW plant, needed more efficient, reliable gas-turbine performance to lower electricity-driven production costs and avoid power interruptions. To modernize its fleet of GE 9E turbines and manage hot-day constraints and variable fuel quality, Dubal engaged GE Digital to deploy Power LifeMax—combining 9E Advanced Gas Path (AGP) upgrades, DLN 1+ combustion hardware and OpFlex Advanced Controls software plus monitoring and diagnostics.

GE Digital’s solution—OpFlex features Variable Peak Fire, AutoTune and AutoRecover together with AGP hardware and ongoing diagnostics—increased output by up to 6% on hot days, delivered a 1.8% heat-rate improvement and extended hardware inspection intervals to 32,000 hours. Variable Peak Fire maintains NOx down to 9 ppm, AutoTune supports wider fuel flexibility while holding emissions targets, and AutoRecover detects re-ignitions within 15 seconds and restores emissions compliance within 3.5 minutes, improving capacity, emissions and operational reliability for Dubal.

Dubai Aluminium