Supercritical is a conceptual washing machine that operates without water or detergent. It addresses the issues of unnecessary water consumption and pollution. The advantage of supercritical washing is that it requires neither water nor detergents, and is therefore entirely environment friendly.
The supercritical state can be reached above a given temperature and pressure. In this state the phase boundary disappears while the advantageous characteristics of both the liquid and the gas phase remain. The designer’s study found that for this process NO2 and CO2 are the most appropriate, as these gases can achieve their supercritical state around 30 °C. The gas used for the washing process can be regained entirely; furthermore it carries no health concerns. The high density that characterizes the supercritical state allows solving large amounts of contamination. The applied gases can solve apolar contaminants and the addition of aggregates can improve their capabilities of solving polar contaminants too. The gases suggested by us can be applied at low temperature, therefore they do not fracture the textile. They are also non-flammable, non-corrosive gases which ensures the long lifetime of the washing machine. The biggest benefit of this washing technology is that they do not pollute the environment. Last, but not least is to be mentioned that the applied method is fully antibacterial.
Designer: Daniel Nagy