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Our core principles,
people and technologies
behind TakeAir
The authority on Microbial Resource Management
To discover the health-supporting effects of nature, we joined forces with Prof. Dr. Ir. Verstraete, one of the world’s foremost experts in applied microbial ecology. Together with the University of Ghent, Antwerp, and Genoa, we continue to research and improve our service.
“30 years ago, we completely ignored the micro-organisms inside the human body. Now, we know these organisms influence our mental health. We’re not going to make ther same mistake by neglecting the effect of microbiomes in the built environment.”
The leading expert on indoor micro-organisms
Besides being a chairman of the Dutch indoor climate inspection companies of the VLA (FME), Michel Van Veen played an active role in establishing the measurement protocol “micro-organisms in the indoor climate and air treatment systems”, which has been a guiding document ever since.
“A great diversity of microorganisms is preferred to one single or dominating species. Therefore, bringing balance to the indoor microbiome with natural organisms is a perfect solution for creating a nature- like indoor environment.”
Why do you need TakeAir?
Lead the informed citizen to your building
People attach importance to a safe harbor and wellbeing has grown to be the top priority.
The service of Bio-Tech Air Management scrubs the indoor environment from viruses and enriches the air with favorable organisms. The outcome is above safe, also a favorable environment.
Red Marine Algae, the force of Sea Aeration
Several studies affirm the bio-activities of Red Marine Algae to inhibit and bind viruses. The unique chemical structure of the sulfated polysaccharide in red marine algae has shown promise as a therapeutic agent for respiratory weaknesses.
The molecule is academical known to have immense medicinal properties and works on different types of bacteria and enveloped viruses.
Main achievements, based on the experiments with the lab-scale and the large-scale ventilation systems for the Sea Aeration technology:
- Optimized positioning of the virus catcher in the ventilation tube without causing important obstructions of airflow;
- Experimental demonstration of a high phage-capturing capacity of the treated filter: up to 94 % (phage) decrease;
- Demonstration of fast die-off of captured phages on the treated filters: log 3 PFU decrease;
- Demonstration of important die-off of captured phages on the filters: up to 60 % decrease within 1 hour of air recirculation and over 99 % overnight.
- No bacterial growth on the filter, during a period of 2 months (static tests), and no Legionella growth on a treated filter that was incubated in the air duct for one month;
- Long-lasting phage capturing capacity of pretreated filter (1-2 weeks; longer-term experiments ongoing);
- The developed formulation can be sprayed at regular intervals for the reactivation of filter properties.
- No important detachment of the captured phages from the treated filters;
What are phages, and why are we using the MS2 phages in our research?
MS2 can be used as a virucidal efficacy screening tool. Viral disinfectant efficacy testing is generally known to be very difficult due to the fact that you can't use real viruses in testing. It is because of the time taken and the work required to propagate viruses and keep up the host cell lines.
Using MS2 for preliminary screens, you can test many potentially efficacious formulations. Compared to the other small non-enveloped viruses, MS2 is observed to be more sensitive. At the same time, its resistance is more towards inactivation than the enveloped viruses such as influenza and Sars-Cov-2. Making it the ideal partner for determining the capturing and inhibiting properties of our systems.
The start of all life was microbial: the Archaea organisms.
Archaea are a key part of the earth's evolution. Being the oldest known life form they are essential In the human microbiome, gut, mouth, and skin. Their morphological, metabolic, and geographical diversity permits them to play multiple ecological roles, and benefit our overall living conditions.
Archaea live in mutualistic relationships with other living things, meaning they provide some kind of benefit to another species and get something good in return. TakeAir delivers this ecological process to the indoor environment, producing a hospitable and balanced indoor space. These Archaea are the elements we cultivate and disperse in a controlled manner through existing ventilation channels. This process is called Bioremediation.
A stable and varied indoor biome creates a living environment in which the fine-meshed mechanism of our immune system is at ease.
Our TakeAir Database presents the vision, numbers and technologies behind Biospheric Ventilation and the concept behind Nature as a Service. Start reading and understand why the microbial environment is the new revolution for indoor spaces.
Update 3/5/21
We can now conclude due to ongoing research that we have obtained an improvement where we capture 92% of particles and 99% of particle mass captures, this with only an 8.2 Pa increase in pressure drop resulting in a total of 15.4 Pa pressure loss in our current set-up.
Revive x WATT the firms
WATT the firms is the leading and most innovative player for co-sharing offices on the market today. We are already providing bioremediation for a healthy environment, now removal of viral pathogens is the next step.
Housing project YUST
In spring 2019, YUST opened its doors in Antwerp. The housing project combines a restaurant, private rooms, hostel, and lofts for long-stay in one stylish building. Now, YUST succeeded to be the first residential building in Europe to collaborate with TakeAir to create an optimal indoor climate.