英研發節水洗衣機 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機有望於明年與注重環保的英國民衆見面。

負責推廣該技術的利茲大學克塞羅斯公司於本週一稱，這款新型洗衣機的耗水量及能耗還不到傳統洗衣機的2%。

克塞羅斯公司在一份聲明中稱，這款節水洗衣機主要利用塑料芯片去除衣物上的污漬。由於在洗滌過程中衣物乾燥，洗完後不用烘乾，因此能夠降低能耗。

該公司稱，這款洗衣機的價格“與（傳統）洗衣機不會有太大差別。” 克塞羅斯公司近日從IP集團獲得一筆近50萬英鎊的投資。

據一直致力於減少水資源浪費的非政府組織“水智慧”統計，在過去15年中，英國洗衣機使用量增加了23%。目前英國普通家庭每日洗衣耗水近21升，佔家庭日耗水總量的13%。

傳統洗衣機每洗一千克衣物就需耗水約35千克，燒水和烘乾衣物也需耗費不少能源。

克塞羅斯公司說，英國每年售出200多萬臺洗衣機，其市場總價值高達約10億英鎊。