Circular salt for Sweden

A new mineral reclamation process by Swedish recycling group Ragn-Sells could bring more environmentally-friendly-produced road salt to Scandinavia’s highways this coming winter.
June 22, 2022 Read time: 2 mins
Swedish road maintenance contractor Peab will be using the circular NaCI salt in Stockholm, Uppsala and the suburbs during winter 2022/23 (image courtesy Peab)

In May 2020 Ragn-Sells started construction of the first Ash2Salt process plant at the group’s recycling site at Högbytorp site just outside Stockholm – a US$55 million investment. Initially, the plant will be able to receive and process up to 135,000 tonnes of fly ash annually – just under half of the 300,000 tonnes of fly ash that Sweden produces each year. Right now, around half of this is sent to a discontinued limestone quarry on the Norwegian island of Langøya, near Oslo.

Fly ash, which is classified as hazardous waste, is what is left-over from scrubbing the flue gas from waste incineration carried out by local communities and cities. The Ash2Salt plant will wash the fly ash and recover its constituent salts: sodium chloride, calcium chloride and potassium chloride and sell these forward to manufacturers of various products and a range of commercial applications, including road salt manufacture.

Meanwhile, EasyMining has a contract to supply GC Reiber, based in Oslo, Norway, and one of northern Europe’s largest manufacturers and distributors of industrial-use salts, including road salt. In turn, Reiber has signed a contract with road maintenance company Peab to supply it with road salt starting by the end of this year for winter 2022/23.

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