The Aqua2N process proved to remove and recover 95 percent of the ammonium nitrogen in sludge liquor 

The innovation company EasyMining has now closed their EU LIFE-financed project LIFE RE-Fertilize. The project has shown that the Aqua2N process has been proven to remove and recover 95 percent of the ammonium nitrogen in sludge liquor at wastewater treatment plants, increasing the capacity of the plants, and significantly reducing their nitrous oxide emissions. 

- The Aqua2N process is a solution that lowers the nitrogen load in the wastewater treatment plant and significantly reduces the nitrous oxide emissions. At the same time, the removed nitrogen is recovered and converted to an ammonium salt usable in agriculture, says Anna Lundbom, Project leader of LIFE RE-Fertilize at EasyMining. 

The Aqua2N process has proven a significant value that can be achieved by increasing the wastewater treatment plant's capacity, reducing nitrous oxide emissions, and providing agriculture with recycled ammonium sulphate. At the demonstration plant at Lynetten in Copenhagen, a continuous removal rate of 95 percent was proven. This will be positive both for the climate and for the transformation to a sustainable society. 

- The EU LIFE funding has been important to be able to build such a large demonstration facility and to be able to maintain such a high pace. At the same time, we couldn’t make it this successful without good cooperation between project partners which together represented different parts of the value chain, says Anna Lundbom. 

Within the project, it was important to validate the agronomic effects in comparison to conventionally produced ammonium sulphate. Therefore, a pot trial test was conducted at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU) with liquid and solid products from both the leachate and the sludge liquor applications, evaluated by Lantmännen and EasyMining. The tests showed that the recovered ammonium sulphate had similar agronomic effects as conventional ammonium sulphate.  

The ambition now is to have the first commercial contract for an Aqua2N plant in late 2023. EasyMining has established a conceptual design for a plant with a capacity of 10 m3 of incoming water per hour, more than doubling the demonstration plant's capacity of 4 m3 per hour. Work on commercialising the ammonium sulphate product will also continue. 

- If we are serious about creating a sustainable society, we have to start using the resources we already have produced over and over again. The market potential for the Aqua2N process is huge as well as the interest from the markets. But we must continue to put a lot of effort into highlighting the importance of making legislation circular. Today’s legislation often hinders the use of recycled, good quality resources due to their origin, explains Anna Lundbom.  

The LIFE RE-Fertilize project has been running from mid-2019 to December 2022, demonstrating EasyMining’s process in an operational environment at BIOFOS’ wastewater treatment plant Lynetten in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Ragn-Sells’ landfill Högbytorp outside Stockholm, Sweden.  

For further information, please contact: 
Anna Lundbom, Chief Marketing Officer at EasyMining, +46 70 927 28 29, anna.lundbom@ragnsells.com
Emma Ranerfors, Press Officer at Ragn-Sells, +46 10-723 24 16, press@ragnsells.com 

Fact: About the project 
The overall goal of the RE-Fertilize project was to demonstrate a new removal and recovery process for nitrogen, producing a nitrogen product suitable for fertilisers, for example.  

In the project, a demonstration plant for the process has been built, and the process has been demonstrated in an operational environment with a removal rate of >95% of the ammonium nitrogen. The produced ammonium sulphate has been evaluated and its agronomic effect is proven. A conceptual design has been conducted within the project, as well as establishing a business case, business model, and business plan for commercialising the process and product.  

Fact: Project partners 
EasyMining is an innovative company developing and commercialising processes for recovering valuable materials. 
BIOFOS is Denmark’s largest wastewater treatment utility, treating wastewater from 1.4 million population equivalents in three plants around Copenhagen.
Lantmännen is an agricultural cooperative and Northern Europe’s leader in agriculture, machinery, bioenergy, and food products.
Ragn-Sells is a private company collecting and treating waste in four countries.