3AWater – from past to present
Way back in 1959, physicist Richard Feynman noted in his famous lecture that “there is plenty of room at the bottom”. This statement continues to be true and relevant when it comes to the technology used by 3AWater in its proprietary nanoporous filters. The filters concentrate metal ions from water solutions into solid form. The nanoporous material actually contains an area corresponding to a football field in a volume equal to a sugar cube. Stacking all the pores found in this nanoporous sugar cube into a single long tube, the length of the tube would reach the distance between the Earth and Moon 8 times. These extreme properties contain the secret to revolutionary technology.
The story of 3AWater started already years ago in the University of Turku, Finland, which carried out research in using nanoporous materials in gas sensors and drug delivery. I transferred to the University of Eastern Finland in 2008, with Joakim Riikonen, then my doctoral student. Together, we started to screen the possibilities for using modified nanoporous material as a metal collector, mainly for purification purposes. One milestone was reached in the form of a research project funded by the Academy of Finland in 2015. Back then, the material was produced with a laborious and non-scalable electrochemical etching method. Due to challenges in producing the material on a large scale, we started to consider its commercial application with limited material consumption. We ended up using the material for metal analysis as we recognized that precise metal analysis of natural water continues to be incredibly complicated and time consuming. We applied for Business Finland funding for the commercialization of research project in 2017, and Tuomo Nissinen became the project manager. At this point Tommi Tiihonen also joined the team as a project researcher. The project was boosted by encouragement from Mikko Juuti, who also suggested that we contact his former colleague Pekka Savolahti. Luckily, Pekka decided to join our team. After the end of the project, 3AWater was established in 2019.
Since winning the Tahko Ski Lift Pitch competition in 2019, and getting essential support from EIT Raw Materials and seed funding from Butterfly Ventures, we have been focusing strongly on the company’s first commercial product to be launched in 2021.
So far, our journey has been extremely interesting. It has been a pleasure to work with our inspiring and talented team for all these years – and the company’s team continues to be expanding. I am looking forward to a bright future, where 3AWater contributes to making the world a better and safer place to live in.
Prof. Vesa-Pekka Lehto, PhD
3AWater Oy, Chairman of the board
Team
Tuomo Nissinen
CEO, Co-Founder
Tuomo is the CEO of the company and responsible for commercial development, customers and collaboration. He also works with technical development. Tuomo graduated with a PhD in applied physics from the University of Eastern Finland in 2016. He is an expert in spectroscopy and nanotechnology. He left his academic career to pursue a career in the 3AWater company in 2019. One of the highlights of his career as the CEO of 3AWater so far has been winning the Tahko Ski Lift Pitch competition in 2019.
Joakim Riikonen
CTO, Co-Founder
Joakim is the company’s technology manager. He holds a PhD in applied physics from the University of Eastern Finland and was conferred at the first honorary position in 2015. Joakim has been working on nanomaterials and analysis techniques for fifteen years in Finland and abroad. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles. He is an expert in production and modification of nanomaterials and has been involved in the technical development since the first laboratory experiments that eventually evolved into 3AWater’s proprietary technology.
Heikki Jyrkinen
Sales Director
Tommi Tiihonen
R&D Specialist, Co-Founder
Tommi is the main hands-on developer of the 3AWater technology in laboratory and in field pilots. He is experienced in X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and has developed 3AWater’s calibration algorithms. He graduated with a MSc in applied physics from the University of Eastern Finland in 2018. Tommi joined the 3AWater team in 2017 as a project researcher working for the Business Finland funded university project, which aimed at commercializing the results of university research. Tommi is one of the founding members of 3AWater.
Vesa-Pekka Lehto
Chairman of the board, Co-Founder
Vesa-Pekka, or VP as he likes to be called, is a professor in materials physics at the University of Eastern Finland and the leader of the Pharmaceutical Physics research group. During his scientific career, he has published over 180 peer-reviewed scientific papers, secured over 4 M€ in external research funding and been involved in two startup companies. At 3AWater, he works as the scientific and technical advisor as well as the chairman of the board.
Pekka Savolahti
Senior advisor, Co-Founder
Pekka is currently retired from his former position as a customer manager of VTT Technical Research Center of Finland. Before that position he also worked there as a manager of chemical analysis laboratories. During his career, his work included developing on-site metal analysis technology for waters, which was never fully implemented in practice. After spending some time on retirement, Pekka joined the 3AWater team in 2017 to get another chance to launch the technology. He is currently working as an active advisor and board member at the company.