Aachen – September 07, 2026 -- The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) will award its 2026 German Environmental Prize, worth €500,000 in total, to Hamburg environmental lawyer Dr. Roda Verheyen and membrane-filter engineer Dr. Klaus Vossenkaul, founder and CEO of Membion. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will present the prize on Sunday, October 25, at a ceremony in Aachen, marking the 34th edition of one of Europe's highest-endowed environmental awards.
Membion's membrane technology moves from garage startup to Germany's largest wastewater plant
Vossenkaul founded Membion in 2012 as a garage operation in Roetgen; the company now employs 40 people at a converted former weaving mill. Its membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology uses hollow-fiber filters roughly 1.60 meters long, resembling hollow pasta tubes, to strip microplastics, pathogens and multi-resistant bacteria from wastewater sludge. Vossenkaul's engineering breakthrough addressed the technology's chief drawback — high energy consumption for membrane flushing — making it cost-competitive with conventional treatment plants for the first time.
McCain and Wolfsburg's mega-plant already run on Membion filters
The technology is deployed industrially at McCain, the world's largest French fry producer, and forms the core of Germany's largest membrane treatment plant, currently under construction in Wolfsburg-Stahlberg. That facility will use 3,000 modular "foot elements,