After Ellman achieved that milestone, she decided to refocus her career on combating climate change right here down on earth.

“The HVAC industry was an attractive option because it accounts for 10% of global electricity use and has seen relatively little innovation in the last 100 years,” Ellman said.

Since then, Ellman has engineered a novel, highly efficient liquid desiccant air conditioning system, ArctiDry; invented a control system to independently control temperature and humidity of supply air; and successfully completed a field test campaign of the new liquid desiccant technology.

One common design challenge that has limited the commercial uptake of liquid desiccants in HVAC applications in the past is commonly known as “carryover” — when droplets or aerosols of liquid desiccant are carried into the airstreams and deposited in buildings. When this happens, it can lead to corrosion in ducts and other building components. Through the product’s comprehensive design and intuitive testing, Ellman has engineered the first commercially available packaged liquid desiccant system that demonstrates carryover below one part per billion. Furthermore, through in-lab and filed testing, Ellman has demonstrated 99.999% confidence that the corrosion rate is below the threshold of 100nm/year for ISO corrosivity index C.I.