Abstract Adsorptive drying systems aim at short drying times and small packaging. Thus, fast heat and mass transfer and high uptakes of the adsorbent are required. For this purpose, novel adsorbents are developed. To evaluate novel adsorbents for drying applications, we propose a simple two-step model-based method using equilibrium data and a dynamic process model. Based on a case study for an adsorption dishwasher, we determine the trade-off between adsorber unit size and drying times for Zeolite 13X, Silica Gel 125, SWS-1L and SBA-15 E120. For the adsorption dishwasher, SWS-1L is found to be a very promising adsorbent. Employing SWS-1L instead of Zeolite 13X in an adsorption dishwasher reduces the amount of adsorbent by 50%. Even though the adsorbent mass is lower, the drying speed is still the fastest among the studied adsorbents. The proposed two-step model-based evaluation method enables the identification of promising adsorbents for adsorptive drying systems.