A Next Generation Water Saving Washing System for the Domestic Market

面向国内市场的新一代节水洗涤系统

• 批准号: 720084
• 金额: $ 31.86万
• 依托单位: XEROS LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: GRD Development of Prototype
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2012 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=720084
• 关键词: Next; Generation; Water; Saving; Washing

Climate change and water scarcity are two of the world’s most prolific environmentalchallenges. Although widely regarded as a basic necessity to daily life, the excessiveconsumption of water and energy within domestic laundering practices contributesignificantly to these environmental challenges. Domestic washing machines consume c.50litres per wash accounting for 13% of the water we use in our homes. In addition evenefficient machines use c.1.0kWh of electricity with drying using at least a further 3kWh. Thisequates to an estimated 15% of all domestic energy consumption.Driven by legislative and end user demand, the efficiency of washing machines has improvedsignificantly over the past decade yet the fundamental design constraints of conventionalwater systems allow limited further incremental improvement.Xeros Ltd offer a revolutionary alternative to conventional laundry systems that offersincreased water efficiency (up to 80% saving) and increased energy efficiency (potential 50%saving) without any compromise to cleaning performance. Their approach is based on theunique properties of certain polymers to attract & absorb stain molecules. Within the process,stained garments are dampened & then tumbled in polymer beads rather than water in thepresence of a small amount of detergent. Limited water is required to produce sufficienthumidity to activate the process and achieve the desired levels of cleaning.Building on proven success in the Commercial Laundry market, Xeros, within the scope ofthe current project, aim to develop a pre-production prototype of a domestic system ofcomparable size, cost and appearance to current front loading machines. Once developed, theapproach offers the potential to revolutionise the $100 billion global laundry sector, withpotential savings to the UK consumer totalling more than £2bn per annum and a net reductionof 4.2 M tonnes of CO2 per annum

气候变化和水资源短缺是世界上最多产的两个环境挑战。尽管被广泛认为是日常生活的基本必需品，但国内洗钱活动中水和能源的过度消耗大大加剧了这些环境挑战。家用洗衣机每次洗涤消耗约50升水，占我们家庭用水量的13%。此外，即使是高效的机器也需要大约1.0kWh的电力，而烘干至少需要另外3kWh。这相当于估计占所有家庭能源消耗的15%。在立法和最终用户需求的推动下，洗衣机的效率在过去十年中得到了显著提高，但传统水系统的基本设计限制允许进一步的增量改进。Xeros有限公司提供了传统洗衣系统的革命性替代方案，提供了更高的用水效率(高达80%的节约)和更高的能源效率(潜在节省50%)，而不会对清洁性能造成任何影响。他们的方法是基于某些聚合物吸引和吸收污渍分子的独特性质。在这个过程中，被污染的衣服被浸湿，然后在少量洗涤剂存在的情况下，滚落在聚合物珠中，而不是水中。需要有限的水才能生产足够的水来激活工艺并达到所需的清洁水平。在商业洗衣房市场公认的成功基础上，Xeros在当前项目的范围内，致力于开发与当前前装载机相当的尺寸、成本和外观的家用系统的试生产原型。一旦开发出来，这种方法就有可能彻底改变价值1000亿美元的全球洗衣行业，每年为英国消费者节省的潜在资金总计超过20亿GB，每年净减少二氧化碳420万吨