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Aquafrasco Develops Laundry System That Recycles Water and Detergent
Is the process of washing clothes a "waste" of water? The US-based research team AquaFresco found that it takes at least 20 gallons (about 75 liters) of water just to wash away one tablespoon of laundry detergent, which is not environmentally friendly.
As a result, they have developed a patented filtration technology that recycles wastewater and laundry detergent, saving 95% of the water used.
At present in Europe, China, the United States and other places, the major laundry appliance companies are discussing how to implement this technology.
PhD students at MIT patent water filtration technology that saves 95% of used water
The filtration technology was created by a team of PhD students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
They install filters on top of the washing machine and selectively "catch" any oils that pass through a nano-coating material.
This allows for recycling of the laundry detergent, and in addition the water quality monitoring system allows for reuse of the same basic water for up to six months.
AquaFresco CEO Sasha Huang said, "Each time the washing machine is used, less than 1% of the water is wasted. More than 99.81% of the water is clean. Dirt accounts for only 0.07% of the waste water.
This recycling system for the water is far more environmentally friendly than current traditional technology.”
Huang believes that current laundry technology is not "sustainable", as most of the water is discharged after it is used only once.
This has become a major source of pollution for rivers. Not only is this not environmentally friendly, but it also wastes a lot of money.
The water and the laundry detergent can both be filtered and reused.
For this reason, Aquafresco studied where they could have the largest impact, and which industries were most in need of improved efficiency. They selected hotels and laundry businesses as their first potential customers.
Business model: installations + authorizations combined could add up to US$20 billion opportunity
Aquafresco’s survey found that the US hotel industrial laundry market is as large as US$1.6 billion a year.
Their existing wastewater treatment system can only recover half of their discharge. Also, the system is bulky and can only be used in hotels with more than 500 rooms, which account for only 1% of large hotels.
AquaFresco’s solution is much more portable and easier to install, and would make their high recovery rate system available to the open market.
Huang said that "We are currently testing our systems with three different US hotels. So far, the response has been very good!" She said that the Westin California Hotel in Los Angeles has used the system, and found that they were able to reduce water consumption by more than 20% when compared to their pre-existing recycling facilities. In one year, the hotel saved more than US$270,000 in operating costs.
In the future, AquaFresco hopes to use a service charge as a business model. Under this approach, the company would receive half of the customers’ savings from their technology.
But when it comes to the consumer market, AquaFresco intends to use a patent licensing model and create a special washing machine for the masses. They believe that by using AquaFresco technology, consumers can save US$600 per year in water and laundry detergent costs. In the United States alone, this equates to US$18 billion, representing a good market potential.
To date, AquaFresco has received about US$400,000 in investment.
They plan to target Europe and the US as their main markets, rather than making a significant effort in Taiwan.
"The biggest difficulty is that in some areas water is already too cheap, even though we all know that water resources are precious," Huang said.
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