In the project ‘Chemical recycling: from bio-based raw materials to safe, clean, and efficient fertilisers‘ we aim to develop a process to reclaim important nutrients from bioindustry waste, turning them into high-quality fertilisers with well-defined chemistry and application areas.
Bioindustries in the pulp and paper, food, forestry, and animal sectors produce a lot of materials with important nutrients like potassium and phosphorus, essential for life but often wasted because of heavy metal contamination.
Many such streams are landfilled due to contamination with heavy metals, while others are spread on land as low-quality fertilisers. Both are not optimal solutions. Chemical processing to convert these materials into commercial compounds comes with many advantages and significantly improves the sustainability of bio-based technologies.
In this project "Chemical recycling: from bio-based raw materials to safe, clean, and efficient fertilisers", we will develop a robust process to decontaminate materials and wastes from the aforementioned bioindustries and recover highly desired potassium and phosphorus fertilisers with well-defined chemistry and application areas.
Validation of the recovered fertilisers will be done by stakeholders and will include growth tests, quality, and performance assessments. A thorough market analysis, LCA and implementation plan will be done to speed up the commercialisation of the developed technology.
Project goals:
Expected results:
Participants
EasyMining (coordinator)
The Swedish Agricultural University - Department of Molecular Sciences and Department of Soil and Environment
Södra Skogsägarna
Ragn-Sells
Lantmännen
Budget & time plan
The project’s total budget is 7,2 MSEK and the project runs between November 2023 and April 2026.
Funding
The project is funded under the strategic innovation program BioInnovation, a joint venture of Vinnova, Formas and The Swedish Energy Agency.
