GreenSwitch® Potassium is a fossil fuel-free production process to transform recovered salts (residue) from the paper industry and electric car batteries into sustainable Potassium Sulphate (SOP) fertilizers. GreenSwitch® Potassium is the outcome of a new business partnership with Cinis Fertilizer.
The current production process of Potassium Sulphate (SOP)
Mass production technologies made fertilizers widely available, helping growers to increase yields rapidly on less land. However, the production technologies like classic SOP using the Mannheim process at 6-700 degrees Celsius, have a high carbon footprint. Van Iperen International has therefore the ambition, as part of our 'Let’s Make the GreenSwitch' strategy, to introduce a sustainable alternative with GreenSwitch® Potassium with a close to zero Carbon Footprint.
GreenSwitch® Potassium is a fossil fuel-free production process to transform recovered salts (residue) from the paper industry and electric car batteries into sustainable Potassium Sulphate (SOP) fertilizers. GreenSwitch® Potassium is the outcome of a new cross-sector partnership with Cinis Fertilizer.
Why is GreenSwitch® Potassium sustainable?
GreenSwitch® Potassium addresses one of the most important issues across industries: the existence of by-products treated as residues and discarded immediately to waste disposal. By implementing our technology, we prevent economic value loss. GreenSwitch® Potassium utilizes said wastes from the electric car battery and pulp mills as resources for fertilizer production processes.
Nowadays, pulp mill waste streams have a high-negative environmental impact. On the one hand, they require large amounts of water consumption and, on the other, generate multiple chemicals -contained in the ash- which end up in the sea. The same goes for car-battery production.
Improving the efficiency of our supply chain process has a positive benefit in the reduction of emissions from agriculture. GreenSwitch® Potassium introduces an innovative production process powered by renewable electricity at low temperatures.
Compared to the Mannheim SOP production process, GreenSwitch® Potassium needs 50% less energy input and exhausts 75% less CO2 footprint. How's that possible? Thanks to the low-temperature process, we use green electricity to transform the by-products. The remaining heat excess is retained in a closed-loop system for district heating.
How GreenSwitch® Potassium production process work
The GreenSwitch® Potassium production process is based on a circular economy approach with a low carbon footprint. But how does it work? Around 200,000 tons per year of sodium sulphate salts -recovered as a by-product from other industries- will be upcycled with a close to zero carbon footprint, powered entirely by clean energy. Water, heat, energy, and other materials that, would be otherwise wasted, are also recovered and recirculated to make a clean, high-tech, and green mineral fertilizer.
"For this project, we chose Van Iperen International as a reliable partner. As a market-leading company, its innovative and sustainable approach to transforming conventional agriculture really inspires us!"
Accelerating the transformation of conventional agriculture
Cinis has started to build the first factory in the North of Sweden in Örnsköldsvik and a second one is already planned in Skellefteå. Both factories are will be strategically located close to pulp mills and car-battery production facilities. This facilitates easy access to by-products. In the next four years for a total investment of 100 million Euro and with a maximum capacity of 300,000 mt SOP per year.
With this partnership, Van Iperen International aims to continue innovating in the agricultural sector with new technologies and upcycling industrial processes. In this line, Jakob Liedberg, CEO of Cinis, explains the origin of this idea: “Fertilizers bring huge benefits to agriculture and society, but producing them is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. We are very happy to make a crossed-sector alliance with electric vehicle batteries and pulp and paper industries on our mission to close the loop on recycling useful industrial waste. The goal: producing a fossil fuel-free high-quality fertilizer with significantly less negative climate impact than today’s standards.” Our goal is to market up to 300,000 tons of sustainable SOP per year as part of our GreenSwitch® range.
GreenSwitch® Potassium, another step in our Green Switch Journey!
GreenSwitch® Potassium is part of the innovation projects to support our Green Switch Journey. With this journey, we want to bring our contribution to increasing the sustainability of global agriculture, both greenhouse horticulture, and open field. How? With Plants for Plants®, GreenSwitch Nitrate®, and GreenSwitch Potassium®.
These new methods and products are chemically identical to the products currently used in high-tech agriculture and horticulture and less polluting to the environment when it comes to their production. Now, let's make the green switch!