REDUCING WATER CONSUMPTION AND DETERGENT USAGE FOR DISHWASHER AND WASHING MACHINE

Haier is seeking technologies to reduce water consumption and detergent usage for its dishwasher and washing machine. Most of the dishwashers and washing machines still use detergent and water to remove food, dirt and stains, as well as additional components to kill microorganisms and/or remove odours. Most detergent contains chemicals, which not only wastes water to rinse off, but also poses health concern if any residual remains on dishes/clothes. The drainage of detergent and cleaning water is a burden for the environment.

Due to the size limitation of kitchen appliances, Haier is not interested in technologies or designs that cannot be integrated with standard dishwasher/washing machines and require drastic changes to existing appliances. Solutions that have minimal environmental impact are of key interest.

• Achieve water savings for the washing machine of using less than 5 litres of water to clean 10kg of clothes.
• Solution to replace detergents, if disposable materials are used, should be price-competitive with the detergents on the market.
• Disposables should come with third party test reports stating theirs performance and/or safety and should be ready for scale-up. Proven solutions / technologies (e.g. in other industries or applications) are preferred.
• Applicants are required to have prototype or minimum viable product (MVP) of modules or design for evaluation, or demonstrate that the core technology has been proven in other industries / applications.
• Proposals should include information on any proof-of-concept (POC)/MVP that is non-sensitive.
• Applicant should indicate estimated commercial price of solution, cost of operation/maintenance and cost-benefit analysis of the solution in the proposal.

Besides addressing the above requirements, the proposed solution should also fulfil the following criteria:

• Not be readily or commercially available in the market, for this application.
• Wherever applicable, aim to:
  • Enhance resource efficiency; and/or
  • Reduce reliance on cleaning agents; and/or
  • Improve washing quality, consistency and efficiency; and/or
  • Achieve cost-effectiveness.

Solution development and test-bedding should take 6-12 months, and pilot deployment within 24 months.

Haier will provide in-kind resources for development and verification of the proposed solution, such as user data, Haier's products for pilot testing, mentorship and channels to manufacturing facilities in China etc.