Yariv´s research - the future of waste processing

Yariv Cohen has a PhD in phosphorus extraction from ash and mine waste from SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) in Uppsala and he has been working in chemical engineering for over 20 years. He is one of the founders of the innovation company, EasyMining, which was set up in 2007 and acquired by Ragn-Sells in 2014.

- I am currently research and development manager at EasyMining, which has its headquarters in Uppsala. We are engaged in a number of projects where we are developing new processes and patents, says Yariv.

There are ten people in Yariv’s research team and EasyMining also employs five engineers.

- The engineers design the processes and we develop them and perform pilot tests in our lab. We develop technologies which we can then sell and which can be scaled up. It is exciting to see how ideas become innovations and go from lab scale to large scale and reality.

Part of a future industry

Over the years, Yariv has been involved in developing several processes that are now patented. One of them is Ash2Salt, where commercial salts are recovered from fly ash. Another one is Ash2Phos where phosphorus is recovered. EasyMining works closely with several collaborative partners. One of them is the state-owned mining company LKAB, which uses EasyMining’s KMAP technology to extract phosphorus and rare earth metals from mine waste.Yariv and EasyMining are part of Ragn-Sells’ New Value Chains business area, which works innovatively to find and recover commercial products from waste.

It is really exciting to be a part of an industry of the future where we can recover commercial, clean products from waste. It feels like an important task in a circular economy. Being engaged in something that makes a difference and contributes to a better world is extremely satisfying”, Yariv says.