Ragn-Sells and BIOFOS enter partnership on phosphorus recovery in Denmark

Ragn-Sells innovation company EasyMining and the Danish company BIOFOS have signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) for long-term cooperation on phosphorous recovery from incinerated sewage sludge. The partnership will reduce Denmark's imports of the critical raw material phosphorus by up to 10 percent.

A circular economy can only be achieved through trade and partnership. The Öresund region is already a well-established trading region with a successful cross border market - where we all share the same resources and the same sea.

– This is an important step for phosphorus recovery in the Nordics. Fully implemented, this solution could replace almost 10 percent of Denmark's current imports of virgin phosphorus, says Anders Kihl, Head of Business Area New Value Chains, at Ragn-Sells.

The European Union has phosphorus on its list of 27 so-called Critical Raw Materials (CRM). The BIOFOS and Ragn-Sells partnership mean that Ragn-Sells will use the ash from BIOFOS incineration of sewage sludge to recover phosphorus using EasyMining’s patented Ash2Phos technology. The ash will be processed at Ragn-Sells new phosphorus recovery plant in Sweden, currently in permit process. The uniqueness of this partnership is that Ragn-Sells will also process ashes from BIOFOS landfills, so-called Landfill Mining.

– We have evaluated many phosphorus recovery solutions and believe that the technology of Ragn-Sells and EasyMiningis the most efficient and will deliver the highest recovery rates. It opens up opportunities for responsible material recycling of phosphorus and also iron and aluminium, from our landfills, says BIOFOS Economy CFO Søren Heegaard.

– We are confident that this long-term partnership will benefit both of us. We think BIOFOS is an ideal partner because of their high ambitions and systematic and holistic approach, says Anders Kihl.

For more information, please contact:

Jan Svärd, CEO, EasyMining, +46 70 978 64 74, jan.svard@ragnsells.com,

Anders Kihl, Business Area Director New Value Chains, Ragn-Sells+46 70 927 2684, anders.kihl@ragnsells.com

Facts: BIOFOS

BIOFOS is Denmark’s largest waste water company, cleaning waste water from 1.2 million inhabitants in the Copenhagen area. Resources in the waste water are also used for producing climate friendly energy in the form of electricity, biogas and district heating. www.biofos.dk

Facts: EasyMining

EasyMining is an innovation company within the Swedish environmental corporation Ragn-Sells. It was founded in 2007 to commercialize and the phosphorus extraction innovation CleanMAP. EasyMining holds several global patents for technologies providing solutions for extraction and recovery of resources from fly ash, sewage and mine waste. www.easymining.se