We are proud to announce an exclusive agreement with Cinis Fertilizer, a Swedish cleantech startup, to produce and market sustainable and circular, high-quality potassium sulfate fertilizer based on salts that are recovered from the Swedish paper industry as well as from the newly-build battery manufacturer Northvolt.
With this partnership, we aim to continue innovating in the agricultural sector with new technologies and upcycling industrial processes.
Developed by Cinis, this technology ensures the smallest environmental footprint possible. But how does it work? Around 200,000 tons per year of sodium sulfate salts -recovered as a by-product by the paper industry as well as by Northvolt- will be upcycled with a close to zero carbon footprint, powered entirely by clean energy. Water, heat, energy, and other materials that would otherwise be wasted are also recovered and recirculated to make a clean, high-tech, and green mineral fertilizer.
Next steps in the short term
Cinis will build two fertilizer factories in northern Sweden, one in Örnsköldsvik and one in Skellefteå next to the Northvolt gigafactory, over the next four years for a total investment of 100 million Euro and with a maximum capacity of 300,000 mt SOP per year.
Van Iperen International will be the exclusive marketer of this sustainable SOP under our umbrella product line GreenSwitch®, which represents new fertilizer technologies with a close-to-zero carbon footprint. Earlier this year, we also launched GreenSwitch® Original, a potassium nitrate solution that is derived from organic manure, with a first production plant in The Netherlands, for which it has recently won several prestigious horticultural awards. The first GreenSwitch® SOP is planned to be on the market at the end of 2023.
A new cross-sector approach
Erik van den Bergh, Managing Director of Van Iperen International commented: “In these challenging times, it is imperative that we build a more resilient agriculture. And what better way to transform it with a new cross-sector alliance? This sustainable potassium sulfate is part of the circular economy and produced with a close to zero carbon footprint, fits perfectly with our strategy to make a switch towards a green future”.
Jakob Liedberg, CEO of CINIS added: “Fertilizers bring huge benefits to agriculture and society, but producing them is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. We are of course very happy to be able to partner with Northvolt as well as the paper industry on our mission to close the loop on recycling useful industrial waste from the Swedish core industries for the purpose of producing a fossil-free high-quality fertilizer with significantly less negative climate impact than today’s standards. Our partnership with Northvolt coupled with the long-term offtake agreement with global market leader Van Iperen International for the produced fertilizer will secure the future of our two factories.”
Van Iperen International’s goal is to market up 300,000 tons of sustainable SOP per year as part of our GreenSwitch® range. Stay tuned for more info!