Desiccants that remove moisture from the air may play an important role in cooling our homes and businesses in the future. Warm air holds more moisture than cool air. As hot, humid air passes over a chilled surface, excess water precipitates out, which is why air conditioners and heat pumps have drains.
You know those little white packets that come in the box with new electronic devices, the ones that say “Do Not Eat This?” Those are desiccants that keep the items inside the box dry during shipping, but there are other types of desiccants., an MIT spinoff founded in 2018, is developing a hybrid system that uses a type of material called metal organic frameworks.
By pairing evaporative cooling with desiccants, Blue Frontier’s system can work in virtually any climate, CTO Matt Tilghman says. Its operations can be tweaked to handle changes in the weather or in the thermostat set point, altering the balance between cooling and dehumidifying, which could help unlock further efficiency gains.