ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,523,381, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to CAELI ENERGIE (Meylan, France).

"Air conditioning device with indirect cooling by evaporation" was invented by Stephane Lips (Seyssins, France).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An indirect evaporative cooling air-conditioning device, for blowing cooled air into a room, includes an air intake, for collecting air to be cooled; a plurality of plates forming a stack; and a ventilation system. Each plate has a dry face opposite a wet face, which is to be kept wet with water. Each plate is intended to be cooled by water evaporation from the wet face. Two adjacent plates are spaced from each other, along...