CBPM’s Progress on Sustainable Production and Environmental Protection

According to China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPM), it has been working on sustainable development for some time and has developed a range of solutions to increase the use of clean energy and efficiency.

Its work has also addressed the challenges of reducing the adverse impact of cash manufacturing on the environment.

1. Energy Replacement and Efficient Utilisation

CBPM has increased its use of clean energy and focused on efficient energy use. To achieve the latter, it has implemented energy management and measurement systems on its equipment; the combination of good data and a focus on how the equipment is operated has led to a number of new measures.

The clean and renewable energy mix now includes natural gas, solar heating and electricity generated by solar power. The result is that CBPM has eliminated high-pollution and high-emission energy sources. Coal-free production was achieved in 2016.

The total installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation is now approximately 5.5MW. The company will increase its use of renewable energy sources and the proportion of green electricity it uses, as well as using solar heating.

It is looking to improve the efficiency of its energy use across every area of operations. It is implementing LED illumination and energy capture projects. Currently more than 91% of lighting uses energy efficient LED lighting.

CBPM is bringing forward the upgrade of equipment, replacing this with more energy efficient technology. For example, energy-intensive steam lithium bromide refrigerators are being replaced with advanced magnetic suspension refrigeration units. CBPM is also implementing energy capture and recycling technologies. It is working on 26 waste heat recovery projects such as air compressors and refrigerating machines.

These changes have reduced annual energy consumption equivalent to approximately 3,204 tonnes of standard coal. As of 2022, the company’s energy consumption per unit of production value dropped by 41.44% compared to 2013, and its aggregate energy consumption has decreased by an equivalent of approximately 40,925 tonnes of standard coal.

2. Reduction and Efficient Governance of Pollutants

CBPM is focusing on the reduction and efficient governance of the pollutants caused by cash manufacturing. Since 2015, it has invested more than 600 million yuan (about $84.3 million) to reduce pollutants caused by its operations so that its ecological impact is neutral.

Wastewater treatment: CBPM has invested in advanced wastewater treatment technologies to recover and treat water resources efficiently, and 80% of water is now recycled. The amount of the main pollutants discharged from the wastewater has decreased by 77% in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 65.5% in terms of ammonia nitrogen.

Discharged wastewater has reached the national surface water standard, and the substantial reduction in pollutants is saving approximately 7.25 million yuan per year in operating costs.

Although the treatment of wastewater from intaglio printing is difficult and costly, the company has innovated in a variety of areas such as raw material procurement, process disposal and end treatment. As a result, the recycling proportion of all types of materials has increased, and end wastewater pollutants have been reduced by 51.3%. Current research is devoted to achieving 100% material recycling to further cut down on the pollutants resulting from banknote printing.

Production of coins, meanwhile, creates wastewater with a heavy metal content. The company has taken a series of measures in production, wastewater treatment and auxiliary links to reduce the content of nickel in the wastewater to less than 0.1mg/L.

Exhaust gas treatment: CBPM has replaced all old coal- and oil-fired boilers with natural gas low nitrogen combustion boilers.

Emissions of sulfur dioxide, smoke and dust have been reduced by more than 95%, and the total amount of nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 80%.

CBPM has promoted advanced and efficient volatile organic compound (VOC) treatment technologies, such as regenerative thermal incineration equipment (RTO), regenerative thermal catalytic oxidation equipment (RCO) and activated carbon adsorption. These measures help to collect and treat VOCs arising from the production of banknotes and inks, allowing the efficiency of VOC treatment to reach more than 90%.

3. Recovery and Utilisation of Resources

Water resource recovery: in 2020 CBPM introduced the treatment and reuse of waste spray water generated in coin production by the polishing cleaning equipment.

With its activated carbon absorption plus reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system, impurities and large particles in the water are filtrated by the active carbon filter, with the spray water incurred from production entering the RO system.

This system effectively wipes off the heavy metal ions in the wastewater, enabling the water resource recycle rate to reach over 80%. The recycled water meets the production water standard required for it to be reused in production, with the concentrated effluent discharged to the organic wastewater station for efficient treatment.

Material recycling: CBPM has applied advanced resource recovery technologies to enhance the rate of material recycling in production and uses a range of technologies and composite processes to filtrate, separate and recycle the effluent resulting from banknote printing.

The effluent recovery rate in the system has reached 95%, and the consumption of such materials as pure water and alkalis has been reduced.

In coin production, pure physical treatment methods like coagulation are being used to condense and separate the chromic acid mist from the electroplate waste gas for reuse in plating production and for less chrome consumption.

In banknote paper production, recycling technology with line damaged paper edges has been developed to enable the recycling of all banknote paper edges, which can save over 80 tonnes of raw pulp each year.

In ink production, an ‘Overall Optimization and Reconstruction of Ink Drum Detergent Recycling Device and Cleaning Area’ project has been carried out. Solvent recycling devices have been increased to reduce the amount of hazardous waste and related disposal expenses, achieving remarkable economic benefits.

With these resource recycling process and technologies, the opportunities offered by the circular economy to renewable resources will be further expanded, says CBPM.