KCC Manufacturing and Transaera announced a manufacturing and engineering partnership, to scale U.S. production of Transaera’s dedicated outdoor air systems. The systems use solid desiccants built on Metal Organic Frameworks, commonly known as MOFs, to remove moisture before cooling. Under the arrangement, KCC engineers and builds the cabinet, supports implementation of Transaera’s proprietary controls, provides systems-design integration and supplies the domestic manufacturing capacity behind the platform. Multiple units have already been built, and the companies report a growing production pipeline.
Transaera, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, develops the MOF-based cooling sorbent material and system design. The company has reported that its platform delivers 40 percent energy savings compared with conventional packaged DX-only systems and has demonstrated more than double the current federal minimum efficiency standard for moisture removal. KCC Manufacturing, headquartered in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, brings its existing dedicated outdoor air production lines to build and ship the platform, providing the manufacturing capacity that allows Transaera to scale without establishing its own cabinet fabrication operation.
Working of the Partnership
KCC’s scope covers the equipment surrounding the MOF core. The company adapted its production dedicated outdoor air cabinet for the first-generation unit and is now co-developing the next-generation cabinet alongside Transaera’s engineering team. KCC also supports the electronics implementation of Transaera’s proprietary control sequences and handles the systems integration required to make the desiccant stage and the refrigeration stage operate as a single machine.
“Materials science wins in a lab. Products win on a roof, and getting from one to the other is a manufacturing problem,” said Joel Strieter, President of KCC Manufacturing. “Transaera solved the hard chemistry. Our job was to put that core inside a cabinet that can be built repeatably, controlled reliably, and serviced by a normal technician, and to build it here. That is the work that turns a breakthrough into something a building owner can actually buy.”
“We were never going to scale this by building cabinets ourselves,” said Sorin Grama, CEO and Co-Founder of Transaera. “KCC has been making dedicated outdoor air systems for decades, and they brought a production platform, a controls organization, and real manufacturing capacity to a company our size. Having that behind us in the United States is what lets us commit to customers on volume and on timing.”
Production Status and Commercial Context
The partnership supports a period of growing commercial activity for Transaera. In May 2026, the company announced a multi-year collaboration with Amazon to expand deployment of its high-efficiency heat pump technology following a six-month field trial at an Amazon logistics facility in hot, humid conditions. Warehouse and logistics space, along with commercial buildings in high-humidity climates, represents the type of application where latent load drives mechanical design and where the economics of efficient moisture removal are most apparent.
“Latent load is where a lot of rooftop equipment quietly loses,” said Kevin Muldoon, Director of Research & Development at KCC. “The conventional answer is to overcool and reheat. The conventional desiccant answer trades that penalty for a regeneration penalty. What makes the MOF approach interesting is that it removes moisture at a much lower regeneration temperature, which is what puts an all-electric path to humidity control genuinely in reach. Our role has been to make sure the system around that core performs the way the material does.”
KCC Companies operates as a 100 percent employee-owned company with more than 1,000 employees and approximately 800,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity across four facilities. Each company’s role in the partnership reflects its core capability. Transaera develops the MOF-based cooling technology and system design, while KCC applies its existing U.S. production infrastructure to manufacture and deliver the platform. Additional units are currently in production, with volume expected to grow as demand for high-efficiency, all-electric humidity control increases across commercial and multifamily buildings.