Amazon bets Nobel Prize-based dehumidification can cut its energy use

It’s not just you: restaurants, malls, and offices on steamy summer days really are kept colder than necessary. Air conditioning is as much about dehumidification as it is about cooling, especially in hot, humid climates like the U.S. South, where buildings can be fertile ground for hazardous molds. 

“The reason they blast the air conditioner so much is because they’re trying to reduce the humidity,” Sorin Grama, co-founder and CEO of Transaera, told TechCrunch. “In some cases in commercial buildings, the air is so cold that they have to reheat it back up.”

So Transaera has developed a new type of ventilation unit that, the company says, is significantly more efficient than existing dehumidification techniques, saving users energy and money.

Amazon, which has been testing the unit for several months in Houston, recently signed on as a customer. Other companies are following suit, to the point where Transaera now has “nine figures” worth of purchasing targets from customers, Grama said. For Amazon, the purchase reserves capacity over the next three years.

“Amazon is considering this a design solution,” he said. “Once they find a solution that works, they put that into their design standard and replicate it across their building stock.”

The device, known as a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS), can keep the air inside commercial buildings fresh while also lightening the load on the AC. It can remove 100 pounds of water from the air every hour, meaning the AC doesn’t have to run as hard.

The idea of a DOAS isn’t new, but Transaera says its unit is up to twice as efficient at removing moisture as existing systems. 

Transaera’s secret sauce is a desiccant that coats a six-foot wheel which slowly spins inside each of its units. “It’s like silica gel on steroids.” Grama said. The company won’t disclose the specific desiccant, but it’s based on a class of materials that won its discoverers a Nobel Prize in 2025.

As air passes into the unit, the desiccant draws moisture out of the air, which then passes through a heat exchanger before being dispersed into the building. Stale air is drawn out of the building along with heat from the heat exchanger, which flows through the moisture-saturated wheel. The heat from that air releases the moisture from the desiccant so it can be exhausted outside.

Amazon said Transaera’s DOAS units will help the company reduce its energy use and help it on its path toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. 

Transaera is working with existing manufacturers, including those in the U.S., to build the device. Its proprietary desiccant system slots into industry-standard commercial HVAC units. “It’s a like-for-like replacement of a legacy unit,” Grama said. “I think that’s what’s driving this demand — it’s an easy replacement.”