Take the water out of washing
Plastic beads can be used to suck dirt from clothes and cut down on energy use
Published: 28 June 2009
Two years ago in a West Yorkshire laboratory, Stephen Burkinshaw made a discovery that could change the way we wash our clothes.
Burkinshaw, a chemistry professor at Leeds University, has spent 30 years researching textiles and finding better ways of making dyes stick to them. His eureka moment came when he realised that stains and dyes had similar properties. If he could stick dyes onto fabric then it should be possible to reverse the process and use fabrics to remove stains, he thought.
Burkinshaw's insight led to the invention of the first nearly waterless washing machine, which uses plastic beads instead of water to remove dirt. It also consumes a fraction of the energy needed by a conventional machine.
After three years' work, Burkinshaw and his colleagues developed technology that cleaned a full load of washing with just one cup of water and left the clothes almost dry.