Ragn-Sells' innovation company EasyMining is awarded “Innovator of the Year”

Ragn-Sells' innovation company EasyMining has been named “Innovator of the Year 2019” at the Recycling Gala in Stockholm. The jury was impressed with EasyMining's process for extracting nitrogen from wastewater, which in the future may play a major role in utilizing this valuable resource from this common type of waste stream.

- This is the first award we receive for our nitrogen innovation, but hopefully not the last, especially for the sake of the environment. I feel truly proud of EasyMining's achievement, says Ragn-Sells' Sustainability Director Pär Larshans, who accepted the award on Thursday night.

The award "Innovator of the Year in Waste & Recycling" goes to a person, organisation or company that has created innovative solutions or concepts in the waste and recycling area. The new method developed by EasyMining means that the nitrogen can be recycled directly from the waste water, and not released back into the atmosphere. This solution has the potential to be profitable for both the environment, as well as for the economy and for public health. As early as 2009, Professor Johan Rockström and his research associates were able to point out the phosphorus and the nitrogen cycle as two of the planetary boundaries we are in the process of exceeding.

- The EU has just launched its "green deal", which now has to be filled with relevant content. We hope that the return of nutrients will be one of the areas of priority, in the form of circular solutions for phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, says Pär Larshans.

For more information, please contact
Pär Larshans, Sustainability & Public Affairs Director, Ragn-Sells Group,
+46 70 927 29 63, par.larshans@ragnsells.com
Jan Svärd, CEO, EasyMining, +46 70 978 64 74, jan.svard@ragnsells.com
Ragn-Sells Communications Department, +46 70 927 24 00, medialinjen@ragnsells.com

The process
EasyMining’s nitrogen removal process is chemical in nature, as opposed to the bacterial methods commonly used in waste water treatment plants in Sweden and Europe today. Water with a high nitrogen content, such as the water produced from dewatering of sewage sludge, is treated with an adsorption agent, which causes the nitrogen to crystallize and precipitate. Next, the nitrogen is extracted from the crystals and may be used again, while the adsorption agent is circulated back into the process.
The method can be used on any water which contains ammonium.

EasyMining
EasyMining is Ragn-Sells’ innovation company, focused on circular solutions for extracting resources from waste. So far, the company has commercialised three patented processes:

Ash2Phos, for extracting phosphorus and other resources from incinerated sewage sludge while separating out heavy metals and other toxins.
CleanMAP, a method for extracting ammonium phosphate from mining waste or other sources.
Ash2Salt, where potassium chloride, sodium chloride and calcium chloride are extracted from fly ash from waste incineration exhaust cleaning.

For more indepth information, please visit EasyMining’s web site.