Dive Brief:
- Mojave Energy Systems has raised $9.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the adoption of ArctiDry, its dedicated outdoor air system, or DOAS, solution, which began shipping earlier this year.
- ArctiDry provides efficient air cooling systems through a liquid desiccant-based process that enables operators to meet precise temperature and humidity requirements of their assets. The funding will support the launch of new ArctiDry products, electrochemical regeneration research and the completion of Mojave’s manufacturing scale-up efforts with the U.S. Department of Energy, according to a news release Wednesday.
- Mojave has added 19 firms to its sales partner network over the past year and plans to continue expansion across the U.S. in 2025, the company said. This winter, the company intends to launch ArctiDry HP. This will make Mojave the first company to integrate liquid desiccant with a reversible heat pump, enabling electricity savings and zero-carbon wintertime operation, it says.
Dive Insight:
Space heating, cooling and ventilation represent more than half of the total fuel consumption by end use in the U.S. commercial sector, led by space heating at 32%, ventilation at 11%, lighting at 10% and cooling at 9%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In recent years, liquid desiccants have received considerable attention as they can reduce the energy consumption of air conditioning units in particular, according to a 2020 peer-reviewed research paper published in the Journal of Building Engineering.
By utilizing patented technology to cool and dehumidify the air, Mojave’s system enables independent control of an AC unit’s dew point and dry bulb, dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing the energy impact of air conditioning, according to the release. Mojave’s novel liquid desiccant systems are designed to “change the nature of air conditioning,” focusing on dehumidification to lower energy consumption, reducing refrigerant use and improving indoor air, the company says.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in October issued Mojave its seventh patent covering technology for its commercial liquid desiccant AC system. The new USPTO patent marks ArctiDry as the only DOAS system that can produce supply air at a target temperature and humidity level, balancing these levels to prioritize either dew point or dry bulb temperature, while holding each simultaneously to within one degree of the target, Mojave said.
Additionally, Mojave has begun the phase two execution of its DOE project, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, to demonstrate the energy efficiency and reliability of ArctiDry in the field on a variety of building types and applications. The company was awarded $2.6 million in September 2023, as part of $61 million allocated to projects by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to drive innovation in next-generation materials, as well as manufacturing and related energy technologies.
The project aims to manufacture and demonstrate Mojave’s 10- to 30-ton all-electric liquid desiccant humidification product line by selecting and demonstrating multiple unit configurations of the company’s 1,000 to 6,000 cubic feet per minute product line at 10 pilot sites, the department says. The second phase of the DOE project builds on Mojave’s previous field tests that began in 2022, per the release.
By separating sensible and latent cooling, Mojave’s two liquid desiccant regeneration techniques are expected to result in “exceptional energy efficiency,” with integrated seasonal moisture removal efficiency of over 3.5 kilograms per kilowatt-hour, which is “nearly twice the current state of the art,” DOE says in a project description. This offers the potential to reduce DOAS energy use in most building types and climates by 40% to roughly 60%, with typical simple paybacks of 16 months, DOE says. Mojave’s units are also capable of load shifting regenerating desiccant during off-peak hours, further enabling reductions in overall system design capacity and resulting size and cost, per the project document.
The Series A was led by existing investors Fifth Wall and At One Ventures, with participation from Myriad Venture Partners, Starshot Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, and new investor Earth Venture Capital, per the release.
"Mojave's ArctiDry is a no-brainer for buildings, allowing owner-operators to precisely meet the temperature and humidity requirements of their assets, while providing energy savings and thereby lowering emissions," Anastasia Istratova, principal at Fifth Wall, said in a statement.
