英研发节水洗衣机 洗衣只需一杯水

A washing machine using as little as a cup of water for each washing cycle could go on sale to environmentally conscious Britons next year.

Xeros, which has been spun out of the University of Leeds to commercialize the technology, said on Monday the new machines would use less than 2 percent of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine.

Plastic chips are used to remove dirt and stains from clothes, leaving them dry and reducing energy consumption as there is no need to use a dryer after the washing cycle, Xeros said in a statement.

The firm, which recently secured investment of almost 500,000 pounds from IP Group, said the price of the new machines was "not expected to be dramatically different from (conventional) washing machines."

Washing machine usage has risen by 23 percent in the past 15 years. The average household uses almost 21 litres of water daily on clothes washing, 13 percent of daily household water consumption, according to Waterwise, a non-government organisation focused on decreasing water wastage.

A typical washing machine uses about 35 kilograms of water for every kilogram of clothes, in addition to the power needed to heat the water and dry the clothes.

There are more than two million washing machines sold in Britain annually, with a value of about 1 billion pounds, Xeros said.

一款每次洗衣只需用一杯水的洗衣机有望于明年与注重环保的英国民众见面。

负责推广该技术的利兹大学克塞罗斯公司于本周一称，这款新型洗衣机的耗水量及能耗还不到传统洗衣机的2%。

克塞罗斯公司在一份声明中称，这款节水洗衣机主要利用塑料芯片去除衣物上的污渍。由于在洗涤过程中衣物干燥，洗完后不用烘干，因此能够降低能耗。

该公司称，这款洗衣机的价格“与（传统）洗衣机不会有太大差别。” 克塞罗斯公司近日从IP集团获得一笔近50万英镑的投资。

据一直致力于减少水资源浪费的非政府组织“水智慧”统计，在过去15年中，英国洗衣机使用量增加了23%。目前英国普通家庭每日洗衣耗水近21升，占家庭日耗水总量的13%。

传统洗衣机每洗一千克衣物就需耗水约35千克，烧水和烘干衣物也需耗费不少能源。

克塞罗斯公司说，英国每年售出200多万台洗衣机，其市场总价值高达约10亿英镑。