De La Rue, the world’s largest commercial security printer, has partnered with Hydro Industries Ltd, a water technology start-up in Wales to help it meet its ambitious environmental goals.
De La Rue’s Gateshead plant in the north east of England prints foreign passports and around 50 million banknotes a week, but the process also produces around 75 cubic meters of salty, inky wastewater a day. In order to tackle this, the engineering team approached Hydro Industries Ltd, a water technology start-up based in Llangennech, Wales, to see if they could help find a way to minimize the chemicals needed to clean the effluent and recover as much purified water as possible.
Following a successful week-long trial, Hydro Industries designed a custom-made solution for the Gateshead plant and signed a £500,000 contract with De La Rue to support them in reducing wastewater. This will be done by installing a reverse osmosis unit, which recycles the waste and splits it from the clean water. Half of the clean water will be put back into the effluent water treatment plant which dilutes the chemicals needed for the process making it less damaging to the environment and reducing costs, the other half will go back to Northumbrian Water for wider consumption
The new technology will be installed in May and once fully operational staff at the plant will be trained to operate and maintain it. If the new project is successful there is potential for it to be rolled out at De La Rue’s site in Sri Lanka.
James Moffa, De La Rue’s Technical Projects Engineer in Gateshead, said: “De La Rue takes its commitment to provide long-term sustainable solutions for the business very seriously and we are thrilled to find a technical solution to a significant challenge that allows us to prove our commitment to our customers and communities alike. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Hydro”.
Hydro Industries Ltd, has global patents for its pioneering use of electro-coagulation to treat industrial waste whilst recovering water and precious minerals. Major corporations like Tata, Ford, Harsco, and Aramco are among its most recent clients and it is currently providing sophisticated solutions to industrial waste and clean water challenges in the United States, India, Africa, middle-east and Europe.
Wayne Preece, CEO of Hydro, said: “Hydro is proud to provide its unique technology to allow a world class company to prove its commitment to the planet as well as its customers. By cleaning the waste water and recovering valuable components we will show again that commercial success and responsible corporate citizenship go hand in hand”.
Ends.
For further information, please contact:
Sinead Keller- Head of Media and PR, De La Rue
e. sinead.keller@delarue.com m. +44 (0)7584 155244
Guto Harri - Hydro Industries
About De La Rue:
De La Rue is a global business, with customers in over 140 markets, seven manufacturing locations across four continents and products and services in use in every single country around the world. A trusted partner of governments, central banks and commercial organisations across the globe, we deliver products and services that underpin the integrity of trade, personal identity and the movement of goods. We do this in the form of banknotes, passports and secure product identifiers.
Security is at the heart of our work, and we are constantly developing better tools, techniques and solutions to defend against the threat that counterfeit poses to society.
De La Rue is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LON-DLAR). For further information visit delarue.com
About Hydro Industries:
Based in the UK, Hydro Industries is a water technology company developing, designing and operating solutions for water purification and industrial effluent processing. Innovators of a complete water treatment solution, Hydro provides an unparalleled level of clean technology and service to a global market. The company has won many accolades and awards for its smart solutions to long standing challenges across a range of industries and is proud of its involvements in large scale humanitarian work in some of the worlds most disadvantaged communities.
For further information visit hydro-industries.co.uk