Actually this is a little different or totally different depending on your view. Traditional use involved air flow between zones. This design has virtually no air movement between zones. That makes this practical for DC use where we do NOT want to introduce outside air except to maintain over pressure. This is not your grandfathers enthalpy wheel design :)

Guys have a look at the web site for kyotocooling and dig down a little. I visited the demonstration site, have seen the units. They really work, amazingly well. They are a complete solution incorporating full traditional cooling (for those hot days), a full java based controls environment. They scale (units in 300kw and 600kw peak load) and can be laid up to support aggregate loads as big as you want in tier 4 level designs. The thing doubles its output as delta-T increases (please read as you densify and buy more blades). It does this without any substantial movement of air (or humidity) from outside to inside. They can deliver PUE numbers that blow away the best water chilled economizer designs (1.06-1.09 anywhere in Canada not accounting for non cooling loss to UPS etc... that's another problem). This company is a sleeper, one to watch. Even in Canada where it IS cold these things provide a huge cost reduction compared in real terms hour by hour (averages are not useful) against other systems, without the risk of particulates setting off fire suppression or other air quality issues in a serious corporate DC.

Not all heat wheel designs allow inclusion of outside air. The kyotocooling design moves less than .3% of total air volume between outside and inside zones while cooling a 500kw UPS load on 50kw of input power over 80% of the time in most climates. That's the unique thing about their design, and the basis of the patent. Using PUE as a point of discussion (and removing UPS and related loss from that equation) this system can delivery sub 1.1 PUE without opening the windows and dealing with particulates and humidity issues... oh and its not dessicant coated of course. Worth a closer look.