Transferring Technology from Security to Sustainability

Companies in our sector are not only working to reduce their environmental footprint – through reduced energy, use of raw materials and waste – and contribute to a greener future. In some cases, their solutions are being used to further it, transferring their technology from the traditional security space to the green economy. Two cases in point are Digimarc and Lumenco.

Digimarc’s digital watermarks have been used as an anti-scan feature on banknotes for more than 20 years, forming the basis of the Counterfeit Deterrent System (CDS) deployed by several central banks to prevent the digital scanning and reproduction of banknotes. The watermarks are added to banknotes to enable imaging software to detect their presence in a digital image, and block the user from reproducing that image using colour photocopiers or scanners.

The company’s technology now lies at the heart of the Digital Watermarks Initiative HolyGrail 2.0, a pilot project which is being driven by the European Brands Association (AIM) and powered by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. It is backed by over 160 companies, including global brands such Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Unilever. Its objective is to test to the technical viability of digital watermarks for accurate sorting of packaging waste and higher quality recycling rates in the EU, so that single grade recycling is viable. It also aims to test the business case at large-scale, thereby driving a truly circular economy.

The watermarks take the form of invisible unique barcodes the size of a postage stamp that are repeated across the entire surface of the packaging to create a tile effect that is easy to detect and scan. The codes are either integrated within the packaging label artwork (by means of subtle changes made to the artwork pixels) or embossed into the mould that forms the plastic container.

Once the packaging has entered a waste sorting facility, the digital watermark can be detected and decoded by a high-resolution camera on the sorting line, which then – based on the transferred attributes (eg. food vs. non-food) – is able to sort the packaging into corresponding streams. This will result in better and more accurate sorting streams, and thus in higher quality recyclates.

According to an OECD report – Global Plastics Outlook – published earlier this year, plastic consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years, and doubled from 2000 to 2019 to reach 460 million tonnes (by 2060 it is set to reach 1.2 billion tonnes). The production of plastics from waste more than quadrupled in the same period to just under 30 million tonnes, but still comprises only 6% of all total production.

Global plastic waste generation more than doubled from 2000 to 2019 to 353 million tonnes, and accounts for 12% of all waste composition. Only 9% is recycled (15% is collected for recycling but 40% of that is disposed of as residues). Another 19% is incinerated, 50% ends up in landfill and 22% evades waste management systems and goes into uncontrolled dump sites, is burned in open pits or ends up in terrestrial or aquatic environments, especially in poorer countries.

One of the issues holding back recycling is that plastic is a complex material and each type has unique properties that affect its colour, shape, structure and melting point. Which makes sorting it into different types prior to recycling both problematic and essential.

However, results from the first HolyGrail 2.0 trials across all tested categories of plastic packaging material showed 99% accuracy in detection, 95% in ejection and 95% in purity rates, demonstrating an impressive performance of the first prototype. Industrial scale pilots are set to take place later this year.

Lumenco follows the sun

Lumenco, meanwhile, is best known for its work in the micro-optics space, creating currency anti-counterfeiting technologies. It has a joint venture, LenSys, with Koenig & Bauer Banknote Solutions and its technology is behind the company’s SUSI Optics® feature, as well as KINEGRAM DYNAMIC® from KURZ.

It has recently announced a very different use for its technology. A press release describes a product called Cold Fusion™ created using a nano technology film that is integrated into solar panels to increase their efficiency.

The film reflects nearly all unwanted infrared wavelengths while allowing the visible light to be absorbed in the photovoltaic panel. Over 90% of the visible light is ‘trapped’, creating energy and allowing the panel to operate efficiently at a much lower temperature. The result is that solar panel efficiency increases up to 35% and lowers the temperature of the panels by more than 50° fahrenheit.

The Cold Fusion achieves this because the film has nano holes surrounded by encapsulated aluminium which allows wavelengths of 950 nanometers or smaller to enter the absorber while the longer wavelengths are reflected. Other unique microstructures help trap the visible light using total internal reflection.

The film can be integrated into new panels and can also be designed to retrofit existing panels. The technology costs less than $0.30 per watt when integrated into new panels and less than $1 per watt when retrofitting existing panels.

Lumenco expects to have verified third-party data results in 2023 and to start production in late 2023. Having launched an equity crowd funding campaign last month, it is currently raising $3 million in a convertible debt private placement to commercialise this and other technologies.

Given how many organisations in the cash industry have invested in solar panels, they may yet end up using Lumenco’s technology to power as well as to protect their businesses.