Phosphorus recovery plant in Helsingborg
EasyMining is building Sweden’s first Ash2Phos plant in Helsingborg, set to begin operations in 2029. The facility will double Europe’s capacity for sustainable phosphorus recovery.
Using EasyMining’s patented Ash2Phos technology, the plant will recover high-quality phosphorus and other valuable co-products from 30,000 tonnes of sewage sludge ash each year.
The facility will be located on the former site of Kemira’s Ecox business, taking advantage of existing infrastructure and an integrated supply of raw materials.
With SEK 51 million in funding from Klimatklivet, Sweden’s national climate investment programme, the plant will strengthen local production and Sweden’s self-sufficiency in this critical resource.
Phosphorus, one of the key nutrients in mineral fertiliser and feed, is crucial for agriculture to be able to produce enough food. Today, Europe is highly dependent on phosphorus mined in a few other countries. This leads to large climate emissions, creates great supply risk, and makes the EU vulnerable to wild price fluctuations.
This is why we have developed Ash2Phos - circular solution that recovers phosphorus from sewage sludge ash, a renewable mineral concentrate generated through wastewater treatment.
Our technology not only enables high recovery rates of phosphorus but also extracts valuable metals such as iron and aluminium, which are widely used in the process of binding phosphorus in sewage.
The new Ash2Phos plant will be fitted within an existing building located within Kemira Kemi's industrial area in Helsingborg. The building, which is called the "Ecox building", will be partly reconstructed and adapted for EasyMining's future process operations. This includes demolition work, extensive structural additions, new openings and adaptations of facades and roofs, extensions, installation of building and process ventilation, new switchgear room and new electrical installations, a new control system and other necessary adaptations and additions.
The existing Ecox Building.
It is not only the Ecox-building that will be re-used, also other buildings located in the direct proximity will be utilized for process installations.
The process equipment installations that will be fitted inside the modified existing buildings are extensive. Approximately 450 equipment items, large and small, consisting of reactors, process vessels, pumps, agitators, conveyors, different rotating machinery including tanks and silos will be installed.
Also, more than 14 kilometres of process piping will be installed, the majority in smaller dimensions (DN25 to DN50), in stainless steel and plastic piping (GRP).
Installing the process equipment inside an already existing building will be one of the largest challenges in the project, with the constraints this gives, heavy lifts and the installation coordination effort needed.
Collaborations
The site – Kemira
Kemira have a long history in phosphorus removal technologies. One of their main product lines, iron and aluminum salts, are globally used to eliminate phosphorus from urban wastewater, in order to avoid overfertilization of natural water bodies.
www.kemira.com
Funding - Klimatklivet
EasyMining has received SEK 51 million in funding from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s Klimatklivet programme. The support enables the development and scale-up of the Ash2Phos technology, facilitating large-scale phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge while reducing climate impact. The funding is an important step toward scaling up sustainable solutions for a circular future.
www.naturvardsverket.se/klimatklivet
Project status
August – 2025
The process plant design is in the final steps of a basic engineering. During the autumn a basic engineering design will be performed to outline the scope of the building modifications needed, including new systems related to this.
The building is in the final stages of extensive internal demolition work that is expected to last until mid-September 2025. This work includes the dismantling of all existing process equipment, installations and some building parts, with the aim of leaving a basically empty building where only the load-bearing floors, elevator and certain existing switchgears are preserved.
In parallel the project is in a set-up and preparation phase for the execution phase where we are looking to find the right partners for future detailed engineering and construction work, which includes building a project management team and all other disciplines of the project.
