New compound gets water out of clothes

University of Florida researchers have developed a compound that forces clothes in the spin cycle to shed 20 percent more water than they normally would, which could lead to savings in energy and time spent doing laundry.

The results of the research, sponsored by Procter & Gamble, could find its way into products in five years or so, said Daniel Carter, a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering and one of the inventors.

"The chemicals that we use are the same things found in fabric softeners and detergents," he said. "It is the way that we apply it that is different."

Shedding water during the spin cycle means less time in the dryer, which in turn translates to lower energy bills. A 10 percent reduction in drying time could save consumers $266 million annually nationwide, estimated Carter and professor and co-inventor Dinesh Shah.

More than 56 percent of Americans own electric dryers, with a typical dryer handling 300 loads per year. With the average load requiring from 2.7 to 3 kilowatt hours of electricity, drying clothes equates to 5 percent of total residential electricity consumption.

The discovery is part chemical engineering and part unconventional thinking. Carter and Shah went on the assumption that the spaces between fibers in a fabric form an independent capillary, or tube. Capillaries retain water due to surface tension. The principles of surface tension can be seen in how a drop of water can remain quite large until disturbed by a slight touch of a finger.

The primary difference is that the space between fibers is not physically circumscribed the same way a straw or any other standard capillary is. Nonetheless, the space between the fibers is contained enough to allow for capillary behavior, the two scientists reasoned. Researchers in the 1950s found that the spaces between fibers in a bundle could create capillary action.

"We just applied this to woven fabrics," Carter said. Still, "we had our skeptics."

The quest then became to find the right mix of chemicals to break the surface tension. Carter and Shah found that a 5-to-1 mixture of a particular detergent to softener broke the tension. The two, however, have not revealed the exact process. The university is applying for a patent, which it will license to Procter & Gamble.

[Jay_in_FL]

More Allergy Problems?

The researchers need to test the amount of allergic reactions that this "new invention" will cause. The first sample of "Bounce" in our house gave me a horrible allergic reaction when I walked past the unopened box!

More Cancer Problems?

indeed, this requires further scientific
research vis-à-vis dermal contact!

cheers, IJH, M.D., Ph.D.

"If a woman shall testify, her testimony shall
be given half the weight of a man's."
--Q'uran

[Stating]

Save 100% On Drying Energy Consumption

When I was a kid growing up in the 60's, most homemakers dried the family laundry on a clothes line in the basement or out in the fresh air. If they were dried indoors, they contributed to adding humidity to dry air in the winter. You wouldn't believe how fast they dried in low-humidity, winter indoor air. If they were dried outside, they got a nice whitening and fresh smell from the sun.

Consumers should think of solutions that are $0 cost and zero environmental impact. What Proctor does not figure into their drying energy savings calculation, because of course, they want to stack the deck, is the INCREASED energy usage to make this stuff -- tons more chemicals made and shipped by their suppliers like Dow and 3M, and the materials and energy required to make the product, package it, ship it, advertise it, and truck it away when the consumer throws out the plastic bottle. Which then ends up in a landfill. This is not 21st century thinking.

I too, would be concerned about inhaling and interracting with yet another chemical soup on my clothes. And I wonder what effect the residue of this drying agent will have on the clothes. Will it attract more dirt and body odor? Be harder to wash out, requiring even stronger Proctor laundry detergent? No thanks, I'll stick to my zero energy, chemical free air drying.