A review of water and energy efficient cooling systems: A case of air to water harvesting

Traditional heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and dehumidification technologies face significant challenges, including high energy consumption, inefficient moisture removal, and limited water recovery, particularly in hot and humid climates. Sorbent-based materials such as silica gel, zeolites, and Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) offer promising solutions to enhance system efficiency and enable Atmospheric Water Harvesting (AWH). This review provides a comprehensive analysis of sorbent-based cooling and water harvesting technologies, examining their sorption mechanisms and applications. Analysis reveals that MOF-assisted dehumidifiers can achieve energy savings of 30-50% compared to conventional HVAC systems, while MOF-based water harvesting systems demonstrate exceptional water uptake of up to 3.2 L/kg daily. Composite desiccant-coated heat exchangers show up to 107% higher moisture removal rates compared to conventional designs, with advanced systems achieving COPs of up to 10.7. Dual-function systems can simultaneously produce up to 2.80 L/m²/day of fresh water while providing cooling, with hybrid configurations reducing electricity consumption by up to 60% compared to conventional systems. The study evaluates implementation challenges, highlighting material stability limitations, efficiency trade-offs, and scalability concerns in current technologies. Future research should focus on decoupling sensible and latent cooling, optimizing DCHE design parameters, and developing next-generation sorbents with enhanced adsorption properties. By effectively integrating sorbent materials into HVAC and AWH systems, these technologies can substantially reduce energy consumption and provide innovative, sustainable cooling and water recovery solutions in future buildings and infrastructure.

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Published in: Journal of Building Engineering
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
See article on publisher's website: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2025.113075