Burning currency- A novel way to generate power in China

BEIJING: For the first time, China's central bank has allowed a power company to use soiled bank notes instead of pollution causing coal to generate electricity for a city.

A company in Luoyang City, central China's Henan Province, recently caught nationwide attention for burning used bank notes to generate electricity for the city.

One tonne of the damaged paper money can contribute to generation of 660 kilowatt hours of electricity, with reduced emissions when compared to coal, according to the company, which is authorised by the local branch of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), the country's central bank.

A staff with the local PBoC branch said generating power by burning old bank notes was a more efficient way.

"With Henan's current unused paper money counted, the company can help generate 1.32 million kWh of electricity annually, which is equal to burning 4,000 tonnes of coal," the official Xinhua news agency reported, quoting a bank official.

Paper money no longer suitable for circulation is usually retrieved by commercial banks in China and handed to the PBoC for destruction. The residue is then given to appointed companies for further use, usually for paper-making.

Luoyang marks China's first case where the money is used for electricity generation, the report said.