Ragn-Sells in talks with Canadian authorities over recovered phosphorus

Swedish-based environmental company Ragn-Sells, together with several Canadian government departments and agencies, is exploring the possibility of supplying Canada’s animal farms with low climate impact feed phosphorus recovered from wastewater. Unlike the EU, Canada does not have legislation banning phosphorus produced from waste in animal feed.

“Producing this key nutrient from wastewater enables reliable domestic production of clean phosphorus with a very low climate impact. We are happy to explore this possibility together with Canadian authorities, particularly since our home market in Europe has outdated legislation blocking recovered phosphorus in feed”, said Ragn-Sells Chief Sustainability Officer Pär Larshans.

In a series of meetings, Mr. Larshans had discussions with several government departments and agencies concerned with agriculture and food production, natural resources, innovation, investments, and the marine and fisheries sectors.

Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at the environmental company Ragn-Sells

Phosphorus is a key nutrient for agricultural food production, used in animal feed as well as crop fertiliser. It is traditionally produced from phosphate rock, which is mined, primarily in China, Morocco, the United States, and Russia. Mining and production of common phosphorus compounds comes with a very large climate footprint and is often linked to environmental and human rights challenges.

Canada is dependent on imports for its phosphorus needs. The country recently included phosphorus on its Critical Mineral List.

“Without phosphorus, farmers can’t produce enough food, but many developed nations are dependent on phosphorus imports from deeply problematic sources. At the same time, they have plenty of it right there in their sewers. We offer a solution to put that rich supply to use and get recovered phosphorus on the market”, said Mr. Larshans.

The Ash2Phos technology, developed and patented by EasyMining, an innovation subsidiary of the Ragn-Sells Group, extracts more than 90 per cent of the phosphorus present in ash from incineration of sewage sludge. Two Ash2Phos plants are currently slated for construction after having secured environmental permits, one in Sweden and one in Germany. Through a formalized collaboration with the Friesen Group of Companies, a group serving poultry, dairy and hog farms in Canada and the United States, Ragn-Sells and EasyMining already aim to export future recovered phosphorus to the North American markets.

Today, European Union legislation only permits the use of phosphorus recovered from waste by conventional growers. It is banned in organic farming and as animal feed, even though the Ash2Phos product is of higher quality and purity than traditional feed phosphate; hence the interest of European green-tech companies in reaching out to overseas markets like Canada.

Theoretically, Canada’s sewage sludge could meet a substantial percent of the country’s demand using the Ash2Phos technology.

“If we are serious about creating a sustainable society, we have to start using the raw materials we already have instead of taking ever more of them from the Earth. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with our Canadian counterparts and greatly appreciate their interest in exploring sustainable alternatives to traditionally produced nutrients”, said Mr. Larshans.

For more information, interviews etc., please contact:
Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer, Ragn-Sells Group, +46 (0)70-927 29 63, par.larshans@ragnsells.com 
Emma Ranerfors, Press Officer, Ragn-Sells Group, +46 (0)10-927 24 16, press@ragnsells.com

Fact box: Phosphorus
All living things need phosphorus to live and grow – plants, animals and humans. In order to produce the food we need in the society, we therefore need to add phosphorus within the agriculture.

Today we mine the phosphorus we need mainly in Russia and Marocco. 95 % of the total worldwide phosphorous-ressources are under control of 10 states – they can control the prices and some of them are politically unstable. Unfortunately mineable phosphate rock is a limited non-renewable resource that may only last an additional 100 years and phosphorous from some sources, especially in Africa, contain other substances such as Uranium and Cadmium.

The mined, virgin phosphorus is then processed to different phosphorus products.

Fact box: Pär Larshans
Pär Larshans is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Ragn-Sells Group, a Swedish family-owned company with roots dating back to 1881. With over 20 years of international experience in sustainability, Pär has spent the last seven years leading the company’s transition toward a circular economy, sharing knowledge on how to drive the innovation of sustainable solutions.