During the past six decades, the world has produced about 8.4 billion tons of plastics. Most plastics or their tiny particles, aka microplastics, are found in landfills and the natural environment, like water, air and soil. Shockingly, only 9% of the plastics end up being recycled today. Similarly, anthropogenic trace substances such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals, aka micropollutants, are found in water systems. Having microplastics and micropollutants in our natural environment is indeed problematic and a challenge to address.
Meet Katrin and learn how the team of Wasser 3.0 have created the first filter-free solution to remove microplastics and micropollutants from water. One of the commendable aspects of Wasser 3.0 is their strive to make their research accessible through an open-source approach, giving people the opportunity to address the growing issue of microplastic pollution in water.
Katrin, could you tell us about your journey and how Wasser 3.0 evolved?
In 2007 I finished my PhD in chemistry and worked a couple of years in medical and polymer chemistry before I left the beaten path of corporate structures and went back to university. From 2012 to 2018, I was a junior professor at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany. During that time, we started our journey with a research project focusing on the removal of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and heavy metals from wastewater. In 2016, we opened what felt like the “pandora box” as we gained more insights on microplastic pollution and its wide ranging impacts on the environment. Also, we realised that so far we had no solutions to this ever growing problem.
Based on our solution-oriented research and eager to tackle the problem at its source, we started to develop our technologies to remove microplastics and other micropollutants from water. We defined the requirements for our technologies from the very first beginning: They should enable microplastics and micropollutants to be removed from water wherever it is necessary and useful. Therefore, they must be maximally efficient, easy to use, inexpensive, transparent, and sustainable.
We work with three concepts to remove inorganic (heavy metals), organic (pharmaceuticals, pesticides) and microplastic contaminants from waters. The goal is always to achieve zero pollutants in the water. This is where our name Wasser 3.0 comes from. Wasser is German for water.
By 2018, we had developed a MVP, prototypes for various waters and nailed down our proof-of-principle scientifically-proven. Two years later, I founded Wasser 3.0 gGmbH. It became a non-profit company, a social business if you will, aligned with my personal vision of how to lead a Green-tech company: people and planet first. In a core team of four people and Chilli, our Wasser 3.0 dog, and with me as CEO, we aim to continue and grow our research, education and communication work to contribute to the social and ecological transformation so many of us strive for.
Could you explain to us how your technology works?
Our low-tech solution is not rocket science, and this is also not necessary at all, if you know the chemistry behind the different pollution scenarios. We use hybrid silica gels, non-toxic chemicals that act like glue. When you add the silica gels to the water containing microplastics and micropollutants, they clump together, incorporate the pollutants and float to the surface. Thus, they can easily get skimmed out of the water without using a filter. The collected clumps (=agglomerates) can then be used as fillers in construction industries or for other purposes. In this way, we close the loop.
Our elimination technology is embedded in our overall strategy for microplastic-free waters: Wasser 3.0 detect | remove | reuse. Because in the end everything comes down to detection, which has been very complicated, cost-intensive and time consuming for microplastics – until now. We have developed an easy-to-use, cost-effective and fast method in order to continuously monitor and optimize our water treatment processes. You can only change what you can measure.
*To learn more about the technology, click here.
It is undoubtedly a great idea that can be adopted anywhere, and it is very commendable that you have thought about incorporating the principles of the circular economy. What is your response to people asking about the differences between Wasser 3.0 and other purification technologies?
Other water treatment technologies used for microplastics and micropollutants removal mostly do not handle the complexities and diversity of pollution scenarios and water bodies very well and they are less adaptable, if the pollution scenario changes. Wasser 3.0 researches solutions that are data-based, modular, adaptable, sustainable and efficient. For us, the key lies in the research of precisely fitting material-technology combinations.
Microplastics are not a single compound, they are a wide mixture of 200+ polymers. No microplastic particle is like the other. Some float up, some sink, their sizes can be anything below 5mm, even nanometers, and a variety of other chemicals, so called additives, can be attached to them. Wasser 3.0 PE-X(R) works in all types of water and variable loads: Municipal and industrial wastewater, process water, seawater, surface water and groundwater. Its elimination efficiency is more than 95%, independent of polymer types, contaminant concentration and pH-value. It is applicable as add-on to existing processes or as a stand-alone component.
All our solutions are economically and ecologically well thought out from A to Z. We follow our ECO³ approach which means 1) saving water; 2) reducing waste, energy and costs; 3) improving water quality. With our overall strategy detect | remove | reuse, we offer the water sector a cost-effective, closed loop process, which is ready to be implemented.
You previously mentioned that Wasser 3.0 is a non-profit. Could you elaborate on this decision a little more?
There are a number of beliefs and values we have at Wasser 3.0 that made a social business the only option for us to do business. First, we consider access to clean and safe water to be a human right. Purely commercial, profit-oriented action is neither appropriate nor expedient for securing the most important resource on this planet.
Second, if you work to counteract the global environmental problem of microplastics, you will need to conduct a lot of research in the near and far future to make sure you develop solutions which actually generate impact. While public and political awareness on microplastics has been rising in the past years, and research has been increasing, there remains a lot that we do not know yet. We do not even have a standardized detection method or limit values. Regulation so far is minimal, even though it is also increasing. Today, no one knows what the adverse effects will be in the future or what the actual concentrations are in our environment. From my point of view, an ideal place to meet these research and impact requirements is a non-profit Green-tech company, which dedicates its research, development and communication activities to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is completely independent.
Third, we are looking for new ways to conduct responsible research and innovation with involved and affected stakeholders in science, economy, politics and society. This requires a close networking of the areas of research, development and innovation with the areas of communication, education and organization – and a clear positioning for the common good.
The misunderstanding we are confronted with often is that between non-profit and pro-bono. The question we get is how are we going to make money? We actually do have an economic-driven pillar and are also being paid adequately for our work. At the same time, our legal framework is designed to the end that our profits are directly invested in further research, education and awareness raising projects for waters without microplastics and micropollutants.
A significant element of Wasser 3.0 is its emphasis on the open-source principle. Could you tell us why this is so important for you?
We not only focus on application-oriented research and root cause research, but also on education and communication to raise awareness. Microplastics and micropollutants are highly complex topics. The challenges we face through them reach far beyond microplastic beads in body scrubs or through tire abrasion – facts a lot of people know about today. At Wasser 3.0, we want to raise more awareness on levers for waters without microplastics and micropollutants and make our knowledge accessible for all. There is so much greenwashing as well as false and misleading information these days. In this respect, we provide fact-based, lobby-free, openly accessible information for anyone interested. Our communication has been aiming at diverse target audiences from the beginning. We write scientific publications and science-based articles for our scientific and industrial stakeholders. We also write articles, give lectures, workshops and presentations and use our social media channels for sharing our thoughts and insights with the interested public. Our homepage is an extensive knowledge platform on microplastic and micropollutants that is well received by journalists, teachers, pupils, students and many more.
We truly believe in transparent communication, solution-oriented dialogue and mutual learning between different disciplines, partners and stakeholders for the common good.
What have been your biggest challenges and best moments so far?
The biggest challenge is funding, which is a critical part for us to accelerate our impact. We do not have any external investors, but are open to the ones that are interested in developing an impact-centric approach together. However, we are also fine with our current bootstrapping strategy. Another big challenge is that we operate in a (so far) non-regulated field and in a market that is not fully developed yet. We also face some research restrictions since most researchers operate in silos. This is extremely frustrating because we would be able to accelerate the research process and the implementation of solutions significantly if we collectively focused on collaboration and impact.
Great moments are those when we see our processes are working. For instance, we are pleased to report our circular economy strategy is working since we can create new products out of waste. Another rewarding part, especially for me personally, is when school children use our resources and find our information valuable. We are striving for this, namely, creating a community to facilitate dialogue and make an impact.
Where do you see yourselves in the next five years?
The next five years will be very interesting regarding microplastics regulations and limit values. We currently see some promising initiatives on European and national levels, like the EU plastic strategy or the discussion on including primary microplastics into REACH, that aim to reduce the entries of microplastics into the environment – which so far is nothing that is legally required. The change of the legal framework will of course have enormous consequences for us. At the moment, we work with the early adopters in piloting and tailoring our technology to their processes, collecting and communicating data and raising awareness. I suppose we will keep on doing this with more and more co-workers and clients. Furthermore, I hope Wasser 3.0 becomes the leading platform for individuals to find and exchange information on microplastics and micropollutants and take effective action against them.
What would your advice be to future founders?
My personal slogan is “A path is something you create as you walk it!” So, my advice is: If you believe in it, go for it!
Is there anything you would like to tell our readers?
Please be up to date about how to protect our waters and act upon it! If you would like to stay up to date with our work for waters without microplastics and micropollutants, we would be happy to welcome you at our website or have you follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn. We also welcome any project proposals. And, lastly, if you feel like supporting our work, yes, your donation really makes a difference for the impact we can accomplish!