M2 Thermal Solutions, a startup company based out of the United States, is developing a cooling solution that uses a combination of evaporative cooler and membrane technologies to independently cool and remove moisture from room air, and this technology requires no compressor or refrigerant.

The cooling solution integrates an evaporative cooling technology with a membrane system in a packaged design that is able to independently cool and dehumidify room air, which enables dramatically less energy to be consumed. In this system, an evaporative cooler first operates to cool the room air while increasing its humidity. The cool and humid air is then passed through a membrane system to remove the excess water vapor from the cool air, thus decreasing its humidity. The solution also has the capability to bypass either of these processes, and just use a ventilation mode depending on the outdoor weather conditions. Furthermore, the vast majority of the water supplied to the evaporative cooler is generated by the membrane system – thus minimizing the water footprint of the solution. With no compressor or refrigerant, and an innovative approach to independent cooling and dehumidification, this solution has the potential to achieve significantly lower climate impact than typical AC units sold today.