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The washing machine of the future washes with plastic balls
instead of water
Xeros – Washing without water
British researchers are currently developing a washing machine, which needs only one glass of
water. Re-usable plastic balls are used to suck stains off the clothes and get them fresh again.
Additionally, this procedure saves energy as there is no drying of the clothes needed.
Nylon granulate (Source: © Xeros Ltd.)
The British enterprise Xeros is developing a washing machine,
which needs only very little water for the cleaning
process. According to the developers, only one cup of water
is needed for each wash cycle. In contrast to conventional
washing machines, which on average use more than
40 litres of water. Furthermore, a high amount of energy
is needed for heating this water to 40, 60 or 90 degrees as
well as drying the clothes in the tumble dryer. The Xeros
washing machine aims at reducing the water and energy
use substantially. Instead of large amounts of water, re-useable
plastic balls are used for textile cleaning. The clothes
are spun with thousands of small, 3 mm long nylon balls, a
cup of water and detergent.
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The nylon ball surface, thanks to a natural characteristic
of the material, sucks the dirt particles in. Nylon reacts to
the humidity of its environment with reversible water absorption.
Thereby, the water is stored in the amorphous areas
of the polyamide. If the moisture content reaches 100
percent, the dirt particles are absorbed by the nylon balls.
After the washing cycle the balls can drain off like the water
of a normal washing machine. This special technology
makes a tumble dryer redundant. After up to 100 loads of
laundry the nylon balls must be exchanged and recycled.
The idea of cleaning technology based on plastics was
developed by Stephen Burkinshaw, a professor for textile
chemistry at the University of Leeds. In 2007, he established
Xeros Ltd. The company is testing the cleaning
process developed by the Design faculty. Xeros is also the
brand name of the patented cleaning system. So far, it is in
the development phase.
Resource Efficiency
According to the developers, it is possible to save up to 90
percent of water with the washing machine of Xeros compared
to conventional washing machines. According to the
developers the machine uses only two percent of the conventional
washing machine water and energy requirement,
because heating of large amounts of water and drying of