Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
Washing Machine with Rinse Water Treatment and Reuse
Technology Category/Market
Technology: Rinse water treatment apparatus integrated with washing machine;
Industry: Home Appliances;
Applications: Water treatment & reuse/recycling of water in washing machine;
Market: The global washing machine market size is valued USD 59.39B in 2023 & projected to be valued $83.47B by 2030, at a CAGR of 4.98% during forecast period (2023-2030).
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Problem Statement
- It is noted that washing machine is commonly used in households, which consumes up to 120L of water, & by reusing and treating the wash/waste water, one can reduce the fresh water demand by 30-70%.
- In the prior art, there is some literature about a few technologies which do not provide complete solution like removing the turbidity & suspended matter from wash water and addrressing improper chemical & biological quality in wash water.
- Hence, there is a requirement to introduce an apparatus to mitigate above challenges & provide new sustainable efficient solution.
- Present invention provides the solution of appropriate reuse of wash water & mitigate the use of fresh water in washing machine.
Technology
- Present invention describes a washing machine for clothes configured to reuse water & integrated with a rinse water treatment apparatus. (Refer Fig. 1 & 2).
- Said apparatus comprises storage tank provided with an agitator.
- Further, said storage tank comprises:
- A treatment module for storing & injecting a flocculating agent, a coagulating agent or a disinfecting agent into the storage tank.
- One or more water quality sensors affixed to the storage tank, for assessing the quality of treated water and one or more level sensor.
Further, said apparatus comprising a control system which monitors the function of treatment module to inject at least one the flocculating agent, coagulating agent and disinfecting agent into the storage tank in a predetermined sequences & quantities.
Key Features/Value Proposition
Technical Perspective
- Proposed system includes the control system which is characterized by causing the treatment module to inject requisite one of the flocculating agent, the coagulating agent and disinfecting agent into the storage tank in a predetermined sequence and quantities determined based on a turbidity or fecal contamination level of the water based on the input received from the water quality sensor, to produce treated water. (Refer Process flowchart shown in Fig. 3)
- The chemical treatment method includes coagulation, flocculation, disinfection followed by micro filtration, which makes the apparatus a fully automated control system.
Industrial Perspective
- Cost-effective & user-friendly apparatus;& applicable to any brand washing machines.
User Perspective
- Efficiently reuse of the treated wash/rinse water from washing machine.
- Reduces demand for fresh/soft water and avoids the use of hard water.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
smipm-icsr@icsrpis.iitm.ac.in
ipoffice2@iitm.ac.in
Research Lab
Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi,
Prof. Boby George
Department of Electrical Engineering
Prof. Ligy Philip
Department of Civil Engineering
Intellectual Property
IITM IDF Ref.:1293
Patent No: 441978
Technology Readiness Level
TRL- 4
Proof of Concept & validated