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This sounds like a retooling of the dessicant air dryers [0] that have been used for years in industrial compressed air systems.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_air_dryer#Desicca...

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That's not the novel part, the novel part is thermally connecting the regenerating and saturating sides. I think the tldr is that the regenerating side is evaporating and thus cooling? The work input into the system (aside from fans) is the vacuum pump.

They're using vacuum to dry the desiccant; the mechanism to seal the two chambers well enough to pull a vacuum seems like a high failure point.

Ah! They are using vacuum thus inputting energy to move the regen and sat sides around otherwise this would have a distinct whiff of ‘perpetual motion’ about it.

I was skeptical but had missed that bit!

The vacuum may pull the shutters against seals during the regen. So the shutters would move freely with the vacuum off, then seal tightly during the dry cycle. You would need filtration to protect the seals, but compliant seals assisted by vacuum draw would probably be okay.

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