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Case studies on wastewater-free production

As producers with the task of complying with limit values and the constant challenge of producing more efficiently, water treatment is of course a key issue.

We have compiled examples from the minting industry that show that cost efficiency and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a sense of social responsibility strengthens the market position.

Find out more about companies that have successfully implemented sustainable water treatment in their production.

Monea Coin Technology s.r.o.

Monea is an expert in selecting, manufacturing and using coins. Its customers are predominantly Central Banks, Government Ministries and Mints. The production of coin blanks using state-of-the-art plant technology is the focus of the production site in Slovakia.

The Monea team manufactures coin blanks from stainless steel, aluminium, copper alloy and electroplated steel. The company produces electroplated surfaces with copper, nickel or brass in one, two or more layers. All coin materials can be produced in mono- or bicolor.

It is the customers' demand that decide!

What led you to become interested in waste water treatment?

The environmental idea should increasingly become one of the most important aspects of our daily lives. This is valid for the private part and even more for the professional part, since the possibilities of influence and design are far greater here than for any individual.

In this sense we have decided to combine the necessary with the useful. A continuation of the classic waste water treat-ment plant was no longer an option for us. Especially under the aspect of the significantly simplified approval procedure and the associated long-term operational safety.

Were there special challenges?

There were several challenges, especially in the planning phase. After we had already gained experience with a vacuum distillation unit, the next step was to integrate the waste water treatment of galvanic waste water. In addition, the additional chemical-physical treatment that had been carried out up to then had to be completely discontinued and a completely wastewater-free solution had to be sought and implemented.
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In this context, questions of the required capacities and the necessary reserves had to be clarified in particular. In addition, a simple but necessary pre-treatment stage was designed and integrated in order to be able to combine or blend the various sources of wastewater where necessary.

Finally, also for reasons of operational safety or planning reliability, it was necessary to plan and install a sufficient buffer volume on both the dirt side and the dest-water side.

How did the consulting on water treatment processes influence your decision?

Here we have to distinguish again that we have divided our wastewater concept into two sections, also in terms of time. As a first step, we already dealt with the waste water from the surface polishing processes several years ago. These are very simple and repeatable in their composition. In the course of this process, we have sought advice for various concepts in line with the market. Classical CP, reverse osmosis or even vacuum distillation. For the latter we have also contacted various market participants.

In the end, the decision for the vacuum distillation was based on the conclusiveness of the concept and the already existing multi-layered experience from a large number of different installations, but also on very specific experience from the coin blank industry.

A consultation in the sense of a classical sales talk has therefore no longer taken place for the expansion and extension stage, simply because we have already sufficiently dealt with the technology.

At the beginning of the project, the consulting services used were already focused on very specific details, such as quantity definition, conception of the size of the plant and networking of the plants in operation.

What were your main questions?

How do we achieve a solution for our waste water under environmentally friendly aspects with the least possible effort with regard to a possibly necessary approval procedure?

What costs are to be considered or expected with regard to (a) investment and (b) running costs?

Operational safety; should/can this be ensured by means of a maintenance contract and online access to the systems?

What are the guaranteed response times of the maintenance department?

How did the temporal and spatial integration process of water treatment work out for you?

At our location, there were several parallel extensions to the plant and, in this context, also a necessary renovation and adaptation of the spatial conditions. Therefore, there was an overall process, which was coordinated accordingly on site. The specifications regarding the time frame for the overall process were very tight for the installation. After appropriate prefabrication in the factory, the specification was to install the entire system within a total of 8 weeks, including various test runs and release procedures with different waters ready for operation.

A further challenge arose from the spatial separation of the vacuum distillation itself from the production plant, the buffer tanks and the separate pre-treatment plant. In total, more than 1000m of pipelines were successfully laid.

How do you assess the impact of your decision?
Are there entrepreneurial or social advantages or disadvantages?

Our company sees itself not only as particularly flexible and customer-oriented with regard to the short-term implementation of the challenges that our customers confront us with on a daily basis, but also as a pioneer in terms of environ-mental protection for the long-term preservation of an environment worth living in. We not only accept this pioneering role, but we also want to implement it in our daily activities. Of course, the successful implementation of a completely waste water-free production, which is almost unique within the coin and coin blanks industry on such big scale up to this day, also helps here.

On the part of our customers, too, the social responsibility of environmental protection is, justifiably, not only being welcomed more and more, but in some cases this has already been transformed into customer demands. And in our experience, it is not only necessary to show this in the form of a paper certificate, but also in a very practical way by investing in environmental technology „state of the art“. According to the motto, you don‘t become credible by what you write on your flags but rather by the practical implementation.

State Mints of Baden-Wuerttemberg

The State Mints of Baden-Wuerttemberg are Germany's largest minting company with 80 employees at two locations. As a state-owned enterprise of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the two mints are responsible for around 40% of the euro coins minted in Germany.

Using state-of-the-art technology, euro circulation coins, German commemorative coins, medals and coins commissioned by other countries worldwide are produced in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart. This makes the State Mints of Baden-Wuerttemberg one of the leading international minting companies.

Environmental protection has become a marketing tool. The ECB recommends that its member banks check the environmental compatibility of the companies they commission. Every second central bank that we are cooperating with deals with this aspect.

How important is environmental awareness for your company?

Environmental awareness is an important concern for us and we attach great importance to it. We have been certified to ISO 9001 since 2011 and were certified to the international environmental management system ISO 14001 in 2013. We had already increased our sustainability in previous years. Since we have had this system, we have been constantly looking for ways to improve. For this reason, we set specific annual targets for our environmental management system once a year. Every quarter, we review whether or not we have achieved these overall annual targets.

What do these targets include for the year as a whole?

There were several challenges, particularly in the planning phase. After we had already gained experience with a water treatment plant, the next step was to integrate the wastewater treatment of electroplating wastewater. This also involved completely discontinuing the additional chemical-physical treatment that had been taking place to date and thus striving for and implementing a completely wastewater-free solution.

For example, we have committed to reducing waste by 10%. We want to reduce the cost of disposing of hazardous substances by 10%, which is why we need to significantly reduce the use of hazardous substances, as the cost of disposing of them is constantly rising.

Where did you make the most progress?

Our most important success was the commissioning of our water treatment plant. Before we had this water treatment system, we used a filtration plant to clean the waste water from residues that arose when polishing the blanks and to comply with German waste water standards.
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Every six months, we were inspected by the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that the pollution of the wastewater actually met the legal standards. If these limits were exceeded, the environmental inspectorate would have ordered production to be stopped. So we looked for other options.

What was your approach?

We have a closed water cycle that allows us to reduce water by 150-200,000 liters per year.
It should also be noted that we have subsequently worked with Spaleck to achieve a constant reduction in polishing additives and chemicals in the area of raw polishing. We now only have 500 liters of hazardous waste per year. Not a single liter is discharged into the sewage system.

Was this a financial decision? Do the water savings compensate for the purchase costs of the system?

We cannot make such a calculation. The planning security of the plant alone was worth it. It was also a question of image. Being a responsible company, it is important to us to achieve sustainable development.
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In addition, environmental protection has now become a marketing tool. The ECB recommends that its member banks check the environmental compatibility of the companies they commission. Every second central bank with which we cooperate deals with this aspect.

Mint Colombia

The Colombian mint is located in Ibagué, around 150 km southwest of the capital Bogotá, and employs around 100 people who work in the production of coin blanks and minting. The entire production of circulation coins - from the coil to the packaged end product - has been carried out there since 1986.

With circulation coins as the main task, around 420 to 450 million coins are produced each year. Since the environmental protection law of 1991, many companies have been forced to rethink their use of natural resources. Today, Colombia has standardized laws.

For the Colombian Mint as a public company, it is an important task to demonstrate the importance of sustainability.

What led you to become interested in water treatment?

We already had a water purification system, but we wanted more. We were still wasting water. Our goal was a closed water cycle for the entire production. That's why we tested various possible technologies. First we tried traditional physical-chemical cleaning, but this did not result in the water purity we needed for cleaning coin blanks. We then tried newer methods and opted for vacuum evaporation. This gives us the water quality that is ideal for polishing blanks. At the same time, we achieved our goal of a closed water cycle by purchasing a vacuum evaporator around 18 months ago.

Were there special challenges?

We made an effort to understand the entire process in order to know where all the water ends up. And were surprised by the results. Our facility is surrounded by a large area with lots of lawns and trees and a large part of our water consumption was used to irrigate the plants! So we spent almost 3 million US dollars on a fully automatic irrigation system. Rainwater is collected, purified and stored to water the plants. Soil moisture is measured to ensure that the plants are only watered when necessary.

How did the temporal and spatial integration process of water treatment work out for you?

That was quite simple.We were in the middle of modernizing our water distribution system anyway and had replaced some of the water pipes. We process our coin blanks to be ready for minting in a Spaleck unit, which is connected directly to the vacuum evaporator. After instruction on how to operate the unit, our quality team took over its monitoring. They check normal operation every day, which is a very simple process with no special requirements.

Of course, you need to familiarize yourself with this new technology, but you don't need an additional employee for this. With a physical-chemical cleaning system, it would be a completely different story.

How do you assess the impact of your decision?
Are there entrepreneurial or social advantages or disadvantages?

We are very happy with the device. That's why we now organize guided tours for schools, future technicians and other groups every Friday. We show them how we have managed to make the processes environmentally friendly. We want to make young people in particular aware of the importance of all these measures to conserve resources. After all, protecting the environment is our responsibility. We must not use a product as a means of payment that harms our society.

Read Case Study

Agosi Pforzheim

Comprehensive process know-how and the experience gained at the Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt in Pforzheim form the basis for the production of high-quality blanks from various precious metals. In order to further improve the process at the beginning of 2009, a coin blank finishing system was installed. The process water for this system is treated in a VACUDEST vacuum distillation system from H2O GmbH.
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Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG is part of the globally active Umicore Group, which focuses on precious metal processing for various applications.

The company is one of the leading refineries in Europe and specializes in the recovery of precious metals and the production of precious metal products.

How important is environmental awareness for your company?

Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt offers coin and medal blanks made of various precious metals such as platinum, gold and silver as well as corresponding alloys. In order to further improve the quality of the blanks produced at lower cost, an extensive test program was launched. The aim was to identify the best system technologies and process parameters.
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An important factor in the finishing of coin blanks is the quality of the process water. To prevent the formation of stains on the blanks, Allgemeine uses demineralized water. Due to contamination from process chemicals and abrasion from the coin blank surface, this water could neither be reused nor disposed of in the public sewage system. Complex treatment in the company's own wastewater treatment plant was necessary to finally obtain clear water that could be drained off.
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An alternative to this process is the treatment of the process water using vacuum distillation technology. The process water from the coin blank refining process is neutralized and fed into the vacuum distillation system. There, the contamination is removed from the water by evaporation. The evaporated water is of such excellent quality that it can be reused immediately in the coin blank refining system. No post-treatment is required. The remaining residue contains all pollutants and all precious metals that were originally in the process water. Depending on the quantity of precious metals contained, this residue can either be disposed of or reused.

How has the advice on water treatment processes influenced your decision?

Fatty acids are often used in the coin blank during polishing. This fat dissolves in water vapor and is therefore transferred to the distillate in conventional vacuum distillation systems. The patented Clearcat technology from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment is used when hydrocarbons need to be reliably removed. Cost-intensive residual oil absorbers for distillate post-treatment are no longer required. Space can be saved and there are no costs for replacing activated carbon.
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In order to prove the quality of the coins produced and the innovative process water treatment on an industrial scale, a corresponding pilot plant was installed at Allgemeine. It consisted of a Spaleck coin blank finishing system type Z11, a neutralization system for continuous feeding, a vacuum distillation system and a distillate buffer tank.
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The pilot test showed that all medal and coin blanks in Allgemeine's portfolio could be produced in the required quality. One factor that guaranteed excellent surface quality was the process water treated in the vacuum distillation system. Dr. Tews, Head of the “Production and Technology for Semi-finished Products” department, explained that the results of the pilot plant trials had inspired confidence in the machinery and the innovative process technology. “The vacuum distillation system allows us to reduce fresh water consumption. At the same time, we reduce our costs for the production of demineralized water and wastewater treatment. The cost reduction means that the system quickly pays for itself. The excellent quality of the distillate helps to improve the quality of our coin blanks and, last but not least, we are doing something for the environment as our production becomes river-free.”

What was your approach?

The treatment of process water from coin blank processing requires a special adaptation of the vacuum distillation system in order to meet all requirements.

The water coming out of the coin blank finishing system often has a very low pH value. In a continuous feed neutralization system, this pH is raised to a value between 7 and 9, depending on the chemicals used in the coin validator. When the pH value is increased, precious metal hydroxides precipitate. These hydroxides have a very small particle size. Removing them by settling, filtering or centrifuging is almost impossible, except with the help of flocculants. However, instead of removing the particles and thus introducing an additional process step, it is preferable to enable the vacuum distillation system to process the feed water including the precious metal hydroxide.

The concept also includes a self-cleaning heat exchanger that reduces the risk of deposits and blockages and allows the feed water containing metal hydroxide to be treated. In the new system, the Activepowerclean heat exchanger has been generously extended and the fluid dynamic parameters improved, reducing chemical cleaning and cutting energy consumption by 15%. Grinding balls are used to continuously clean the heat exchanger during operation. Deposits on the heat exchanger surface that require chemical cleaning are reliably prevented. In addition, the new grinding balls act like boiling stones and thus drastically reduce the formation of foam.

Design, installation and commissioning of the new coin blank finishing system at Allgemeine in Pforzheim Rainer Pfliefke, responsible for the implementation of new technologies and machines at Allgemeine, was in charge of the coin blank finishing project. Pliefke and the engineers from Spaleck and H2O carried out the planning and planned installation as well as the launch. “The cooperation was very good, the battery limits were quickly clarified and the interactions between the two systems were handled directly by Spaleck and H2O. It was a smooth project implementation.”

How do you assess the impact of your decision?

Both systems were delivered and installed in January 2009. Commissioning took place immediately. Since then, the entire system has been running to everyone's satisfaction. “Spaleck and H2O are reliable partners, they respond quickly, regardless of whether it's the supply of spare parts, consumables or support from service technicians.” Explains Mr. Pliefke after several months of operation.
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Dr. Tews adds: “H2O and Spaleck are reliable and experienced partners for coin blank finishing technology. After several months of operation, we can state that the quality of our products is excellent. At the same time, we have been able to demonstrate the expected cost reductions. We are convinced that we have made the right decision to install this innovative technology.”

"Every day with central banks, every day with producers.
Your satisfaction is our job."

Juan F. Camey

Directror, Latin America