The Canadian feed company Friesen Group has expanded its collaboration with Swedish environmental company Ragn-Sells and its innovation subsidiary EasyMining which has developed a method to recover over 90 percent of the phosphorus in the ash from incinerated sewage sludge.

EasyMining’s technology for recovering the key nutrient phosphorus from sewage sludge has attracted strong interest in Canada, where the ongoing tariff conflict with the US is pushing Canada to build a more resilient economy.

“To manufacture animal feed, we need phosphorus – but supply is uncertain, since a handful of countries control the world’s phosphate mines. Many deposits also contain high levels of hazardous heavy metals. Gaining access to clean, recycled phosphorus from domestic sewage is a fantastic opportunity for us,” says Friesen Group CEO Marvin Friesen.

Phosphorus is one of the key nutrients in both mineral fertilisers and animal feed. The innovative EasyMining technology enables replacing imported, mined phosphorus with recycled phosphorus.

Ragn-Sells is currently constructing the first two production facilities in Helsingborg, Sweden, and Schkopau, Germany. 

The new plant in Helsingborg, Sweden, announced in January 2025, will have the capacity to process 30,000 tonnes of ash annually, producing 15,000 tonnes of phosphorus in the form of calcium phosphate.

Iron and aluminium precipitation chemicals are also extracted in the plant as iron chloride and aluminium hydroxide. The two precipitation chemicals are used today directly and indirectly to precipitate sludge in wastewater treatment plants.

Canada has no domestic phosphate mines and is entirely dependent on imports, primarily from the United States. For the country’s large agricultural sector, long-term and secure access to phosphorus is crucial to both the economy and food security.

“If phosphorus gets drawn into the ongoing series of tariffs and countermeasures, prices could increase by 25 percent. There is also an obvious risk that exports from the US could be restricted. That would put us in a very difficult position,” says Mr. Friesen.

In addition to supplying Friesen Group with recycled phosphorus from the two facilities now under construction in Sweden and Germany, the companies are also exploring the possibility of building local phosphorus recovery plants in Canada in the future.

“Access to phosphorus is becoming a strategic and geopolitical issue, which Canada has clearly recognised. For a farming country like Canada, restricted phosphorus exports from the US would be a disaster,” says Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ragn-Sells Group.

Unlike the EU, Canada does not ban the use of recycled phosphorus from sewage sludge in animal feed. The EU ban dates back to the BSE crisis and does not account for the new technologies that now make safe phosphorus recovery possible.

“This technology can play a vital role in both the EU’s and Canada’s strategic security. However, as long as recycled phosphorus is banned in feed within the EU, there’s a risk the technology will move elsewhere. That could mean the EU misses out on a future billion-euro industry and the chance to improve its food security,” says Pär Larshans.