NEW INNOVATOR: Aeriaq Filtration
VENTILATION systems that keep outdoor pollution at bay are an integral part of most modern buildings. But these systems rely on fans and filters to keep the detritus out and are expensive to run. About to come to market is a new air-filtering technology that claims to reduce energy and maintenance costs by an estimated 15 per cent.
The technology has been developed by Dr Aonghus McNabola and Dr Laurence Gill of the Department of Civil Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College (with Elmarie Van Breda, above). They came up with the idea while sampling air for pollution studies. Their technology has recently been spun out into a new campus company, Aeriaq Filtration, for commercialisation.
The product will be made in Monaghan and is aimed primarily at the export market. The promoters estimate their potential market size at approximately $26 million. It has cost in the order of €100,000 to bring the project to its current stage.
The chief executive of Aeriaq is entrepreneur Elmarie van Breda, who was introduced to the Trinity academics by Enterprise Ireland’s Business Partners programme. Van Breda, who has licensed the technology from Trinity College, is the major shareholder in the new company. She moved to Ireland just over three years ago from South Africa and established a metals trading company. With this up and running, she was looking for another investment and the filtration technology caught her attention.
“I was taken by the concept and market potential,” she says. “We take clean air in buildings for granted, but in fact it is achieved at some expense. With companies increasingly focused on cost and using clean-tech solutions, this product addressed both. It also has wider applications than buildings, for example the motor industry.
“Ventilation systems use filters to trap dust particles before they go into a building and where a fan drives the system the energy consumption can be high,” she adds. “The Aeriaq device expels the particles rather than traps them. It has been designed to manipulate the fluid physics of air going through it and to re-route particles back outside, while allowing the clean air through.”
Prices for the new system have yet to be finalised, but van Breda says the cost will be pitched at a point that will ensure companies get pay back on their investment within three years. “We are at the point of choosing the materials for the product, so we will do this with the end price in mind,” she says.
