A leadership change is underway at Swedish innovation company Easymining. Jonas Hagman will become chief executive on 1 October, parent group Ragn-Sells announced in Stockholm. He will succeed Jan Svärd, who has led the company since 2016 and will remain involved as a senior adviser.
Mr Hagman joins the group from chemicals manufacturer Perstorp, a subsidiary of Petronas Chemicals Group Berhad, where he has spent more than two decades. Most recently, he was vice president for operations and supply chain and oversaw several major transformation programmes. According to Ragn-Sells, he also has extensive experience of developing and running industrial facilities around the world.
New research in phosphorus and potassium recovery from bioindustry waste
In early June, the company also reported the successful completion of a research project on the recovery of potassium and phosphorus from wastes such as poultry litter ash. The process selectively extracts potassium from bio-industrial waste using hydrometallurgical methods, while separating phosphorus and trace contaminants, according to Easymining. It was then possible to recover heavy-metal-free potassium sulphate and chloride salts that can be used directly for fertilising and or by the chemical industry. The company said that it had been able to bring the technology from laboratory concept to pilot-scale operation over the course of the two-and-a-half-year study.
Easymining, which operates as the development arm of waste management company Ragn-Sells, was founded in 2007 to market the CleanMap phosphorus recovery technology. Under Mr Svärd's leadership, the company expanded from a start-up into a business employing around 70 people in Sweden and Germany, Ragn-Sells said.
Easymining is currently building a commercial-scale phosphorus recovery plant in Schkopau, Germany, together with wastewater utility Gelsenwasser. The facility will use Easymining's proprietary Ash2Phos technology to recover phosphorus from sewage sludge incineration ash.
