Company, Team & Advisory Board

We are an independent research and educational organisation.

Wasser 3.0 was initiated between 2012 and 2018 by the then junior professor Dr. Katrin Schuhen as a university research project.

Since the founding of Wasser 3.0 gGmbH in 2020, all activities related to water without microplastics have been bundled in a non-profit organization.

Wasser 3.0 provides solutions for water without microplastics, develops new digital-real educational concepts (WASoMI) and engages with many offers & services.

Wasser 3.0 acts as a sustainability entrepreneur in a non-profit, cross-sector and cross-stakeholder manner, and aims to make measurable contributions to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the areas of clean water, green innovation, climate protection and responsible production within all projects.

Wasser 3.0 gGmbH works and operates in a functional organizational structure, which means among other things:

  • clear assignment of tasks and responsibilities.
  • high transparency.
  • clear specification of the individual areas of responsibility / expertise (4-eyes principle).
  • Monitoring body: internal as well as external controlling (6-eyes principle).

Awards and achievements

Already a few months after the foundation of Wasser 3.0 gGmbH, the first major successes in the application of our Wasser 3.0 PE-X® process in municipal wastewater treatment plants, in the environment of industrial process waters and, in seawater could be recorded.

Besides winning the Next Economy Award of the German Sustainability Award Foundation, the German Innovation Award in Gold, the AquaTech Innovation Award, the Planet Hero Award, we have also been awarded SIT Alumni of the EIB Institute and are a Top Innovator of the World Economic Forum.

Together with our cooperation partner abcr GmbH from Karlsruhe, we were able to win the Baden-Württemberg Innovation Award in 2022.

With the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label award for our Wasser 3.0 PE-X® process, we are one of the #1000Solutions certified and awarded by the Solar Impulse Foundation - founded by Bertrand Piccard.

Without a team, Wasser 3.0 would not be able to act

The core team of Wasser 3.0 currently consists of seven people, a large network and is: Interdisciplinary. Solution-oriented. Highly motivated.

  • Katrin Schuhen is the inventor and founder of Wasser 3.0, whose foundation she laid while working as an Assistant Professor of Organic & Ecological Chemistry (2012-18). After receiving her PhD in chemistry in 2007, she worked in the polymer industry, among others. Since May 2020, she has been the managing director of the non-profit Wasser 3.0 gGmbH.
  • Dennis Schober, B.Sc. Environmental Science / Master Industrial Wastewater Technology, has 10+ years of experience in the wastewater sector, including 6+ years at Wasser 3.0 as a research associate (operating the pilot plant reactor). He holds the position of CTO.
  • Erika Myers, M. Sc. Hydrogeology and Environmental Geosciences has taken on the role of Sustainability Specialist in 2022 and serves as Project Manager.
  • Michael Sturm, M.Sc. Environmental Sciences/ focus on Environmental & Water Chemistry, has been with us for 7+ years as a research and development scientist. He completed his PhD at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in cooperation with Wasser 3.0, in 2022.
  • Anika Korzin, M.Sc. Sustainable Process Design, joined the team in September 2021 as a process engineer.
  • Pieter Ronsse, B.Sc. Chemistry - specializing in environmental chemistry, Ghent University of Applied Sciences (HoGent), joined the team in January 2024 (photo still missing).
  • Oleg Zernikel, B.Sc. Environmental Science, joined the team in January 2022 as an auxiliary research associate and Wasser 3.0 Ambassador for Sport.

Advisory Board

As the next most important supervisory body, we are working on the integration of an Advisory Board. The Advisory Board members will assume an advisory function.

More news in our blog

8. April 2024

Our blog about water without microplastics

We want to stop the uncontrolled pollution of our water with microplastics and micropollutants. In our blog posts, we describe step by step why it is high time to do so and how we want to achieve this. We focus on current information and always keep an eye on the latest opinions and curiosities.
1. April 2024

Sustainable education and knowledge transfer

On the trail of the WHY.... The world is becoming ever more dynamic. The role and function of education and training (school, work, everyday life) is becoming increasingly important. The aim is to offer complexity-reducing transfer tasks and provide assistance in order to be able to argue and act on the basis of facts in the search for answers to pressing questions. This is all quite complex and requires some optimization and adaptation. A look behind the scenes of WASoMI.
22. March 2024

World Water day 2024 in the plastic age

We've all heard of the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. But what era are we actually living in today? Perhaps most likely the "plastic age", also known as the Anthropocene ("determined by man"). The age of the disposable society began with the introduction of polymers and plastics into everyday life. And with it came the great promise that cheap plastic products would eliminate the need for laborious cleaning and repairs as well as numerous costs, such as those for transport. And so it was, but unfortunately for far too long people forgot to consider what happens at the end of a product (disposal) or to produce, process, use, and recycle products in a circular manner and beyond internal processes.