When Aqvita's founder started working on the technology that eventually became Aqvita, the question was not how to build another water filter.
It was almost the opposite.
Once we purify water, how do we put the right minerals back — in the right form, at the right concentration, and at the right moment?
That question has occupied him for years as a chemical engineer. It has also generated a growing intellectual-property portfolio around Aqvita and Flamingo Holding. Philippe Tob is the sole inventor named on these patent families.
Today, several of these inventions are no longer simply patent applications. They have resulted in granted patents in Belgium, the United States, Luxembourg and through the European Patent Office.
And taken together, they tell the story of what Aqvita is becoming.
The first idea: make the mineral profile of water controllable
Our earliest patent family started from a simple observation.
Tap water is defined largely by geography. Its mineral composition depends on the source, the geology and the treatment process. Purification technologies such as reverse osmosis can give us a much cleaner starting point, but they also remove calcium, magnesium and other dissolved minerals.
Why should the final composition of drinking water remain accidental?
The first Aqvita invention therefore addressed the controlled production of mineral water from tap water: removing unwanted components and then adding selected minerals back in controlled quantities.
This work first resulted in Belgian patent BE1024584B1, granted in 2018. The same underlying family subsequently produced US patent US11,866,358B2, granted in January 2024, and European patent EP3658510B1, granted by the European Patent Office in December 2025. All name Philippe Tob as inventor.
The fundamental idea was already there:
water purification does not have to be the end of water treatment. It can be the beginning of water design.
Instead of accepting whatever remains after filtration, the mineral composition can become an engineered parameter.
From remineralisation to mineralisation in real time
That first invention led to a more difficult chemical problem.
Calcium and magnesium carbonates are natural sources of minerals, but they do not dissolve rapidly enough for many point-of-use applications. Traditional remineralisation can require contact tanks, mineral beds or long residence times.
We wanted mineralisation to happen while the water was flowing.
This led to a second major patent family around the in-line mineralisation and carbonation of demineralised water.
The invention uses CO₂ together with immobilised enzymes — in particular the chemistry associated with carbonic anhydrase — to accelerate the conversion of CO₂ and water toward bicarbonate chemistry and improve the dissolution of minerals such as calcium and magnesium carbonate. The objective is controlled mineralisation without having to stop the water in a treatment reservoir.
This work generated Belgian patents BE1026871B1 and BE1026873B1, both granted in 2020. It subsequently resulted in US12,012,346B2, granted in June 2024, and EP3894361B1, granted by the European Patent Office in December 2024.
For me, this family is particularly important because it moves the concept from remineralising water to something closer to engineering its chemistry in real time.
That distinction matters.
RO systems, desalination plants, water dispensers and other purification technologies increasingly produce water with very low mineral content. Our technology asks what should happen immediately downstream.
Making the mineral component replaceable
Another branch of the work addressed the consumable itself.
Belgian patent BE1027370B1, granted in January 2021, describes a system in which a predefined volume of water is remineralised by passing it through a removable pod containing a determined quantity of mineral components.
The idea may sound obvious once described. But it represents an important step in the architecture of the Aqvita platform:
separate the water-treatment equipment from the mineral formulation.
The appliance can remain installed while the mineral component becomes replaceable, configurable and potentially application-specific.
That concept is highly relevant to the way we now think about Aqvita: not simply as a machine company, but as a combination of water technology, mineral formulations and recurring consumables.
Mineralisation and carbonation together
Sparkling water presented another interesting opportunity.
Domestic carbonation systems already introduce CO₂ into water. Could the same short carbonation event also become the moment when the water is mineralised?
That question led to another set of Belgian patents.
BE1027513B1 and BE1027514B1, both granted in March 2021, address methods and systems for producing sparkling mineral water. The inventions explore the use of mineral compositions together with CO₂ and enzyme-assisted bicarbonate chemistry to improve the kinetics of mineral dissolution during the relatively short carbonation process.
Again, the recurring theme is the same:
use processes that are already happening inside water equipment — flow, pressure, CO₂ injection — to create the desired mineral profile at the point of use.
A concentrated mineral solution that remains stable under CO₂
The next step brought the technology even closer to the products we are developing today.
Patent LU500826B1, granted in Luxembourg in May 2023 to Flamingo Holding, concerns a pressurised cartridge containing a concentrated mineral solution under CO₂ pressure. The family has subsequently been extended through international filings.
This invention addresses a very different problem from conventional solid remineralisation.
Rather than waiting for minerals to dissolve inside the drinking water system, mineral chemistry can be prepared beforehand in concentrated liquid form and stored under conditions designed for its stability, ready to be dosed when needed.
That principle is increasingly central to Aqvita.
It is one of the bridges between our chemistry and practical products: compact mineral concentrates, controlled dosing and integration downstream of filtration or reverse osmosis.
A portfolio rather than a single patent
Looked at individually, these patents cover different technical problems.
Looked at together, however, they form something more interesting.
| Technology layer | Selected granted patents |
|---|---|
| Controlled production of mineral water from tap water | BE1024584B1 · US11,866,358B2 · EP3658510B1 |
| In-line, enzyme-assisted mineralisation and carbonation | BE1026871B1 · BE1026873B1 · US12,012,346B2 · EP3894361B1 |
| Replaceable mineral pod | BE1027370B1 |
| Mineralisation during carbonation | BE1027513B1 · BE1027514B1 |
| Pressurised concentrated mineral solution under CO₂ | LU500826B1 |
The assignee within the portfolio is Aqvita SRL or Flamingo Holding SA depending on the patent family and subsequent assignment history, while I am named as inventor across these inventions. Public records also show continuing applications and divisional filings around several of these technologies.
This matters strategically because Aqvita's IP is not centred on one component.
It extends across water treatment, mineral chemistry, bicarbonate formation, carbonation, consumables and dosing.
From mineral water to mineralised water
There is also a larger idea behind these patents.
For centuries, good mineral water has been something we transported from one geographic location to another. Nature determined the mineral profile underground; we bottled the water at the source and moved enormous quantities of it around the world.
I believe technology allows us to rethink that model.
Purified local water can become the starting material. Mineral chemistry can be added precisely where the water is consumed. Different applications can require different mineral profiles. And increasingly, those profiles can be produced without transporting the water itself.
That is the direction in which the Aqvita patent portfolio has evolved.
From filtering water to designing it.
From transporting minerals dissolved in millions of bottles to adding them locally.
From water as H₂O to water as a controllable mineral medium.
Patents are not the purpose of Aqvita. They are the record of the technical problems we have chosen to solve.
And, increasingly, they form the technological foundation on which we can build products, partnerships and licensing opportunities for the next generation of drinking-water systems.