Six more U.S. utility companies are offering financial incentives to their customers that adopt technology from Rotherham, England-based Xeros Ltd., which uses polymer beads to clean laundry.
Xeros has developed a method for cleaning clothes that largely replaces water with nylon beads. According to the company, its washing machines use 70 percent less water, 50 percent less energy and 50 percent less detergent than traditional appliances.
Customers include hotels, commercial and industrial laundries, dry cleaners, spas and fitness centers.
Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, Connecticut Natural Gas, PG&E, Questar Gas, Southwest Gas, and Xcel Energy are now offering incentives to customers that use Xeros' energy savings systems. In total eight firms are using the product.
The inducements are part of an initiative under the Federal Energy Management Program's Energy Incentive Program, which rewards users of cleaning technologies meeting specific, pre-determined energy-saving milestones.
Xeros polymer beads gently agitate stains and soil away from textile surfaces. The company says users also do not have to separate most colors, as the beads absorb stray dyes, and have noticed laundered items smell fresher than when washed in conventional machines.
The polymer beads can also be used for hundreds of washes without losing their effectiveness, before going back into the supply chain and being recycled into items, such as car dashboards.
Xeros CEO Bill Westwater said: “Traditional commercial laundry machines use a tremendous amount of energy to heat a large quantity of water. By using beads, made from a special stain-absorbing polymer as the active ingredient for cleaning fabrics, and washing at lower temperatures, our systems dramatically reduce the amount of water used and natural gas consumed.”