Enzymes from soil bacteria could make heating coils unnecessary in tomorrow’s washing machines. Henkel is developing innovative laundry detergents for even more efficient cold washing – with enormous energy-saving potential for households.

The scientists started by searching for low-temperature proteases for liquid laundry detergents. They collected soil samples from cool habitats, even crawling into bat caves and visiting penguins in the zoo. Their aim was to isolate bacteria which naturally produce enzymes that are active at tap-water temperatures. Working with their project partner Brain AG, they also sought for genes in non-cultivable bacteria. Then the Henkel researchers tested more than 10,000 bacteria in the lab to see whether and to what extent they were capable of improving the performance of liquid laundry detergents still further, even at low temperatures. Their efforts were rewarded.

Next, they performed extensive washing tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of these enzymes in real life. They replaced the conventional enzyme mix in Persil heavy duty gel with the cold-active enzymes. The detergent showed a significantly improved performance at 20 degrees Celsius. The new low-temperature proteases delivered outstanding results in removing especially stubborn chocolate and grass stains, better than any proteases we had tried in the past.
 
This invention is enormously important because the heating of water to wash laundry consumes a great deal of energy all around the world. If no heating coil was required, this would vastly improve the life cycle analysis of a washing machine: Washing at 20 degrees Celsius instead of 40 cuts the energy consumption and the related carbon dioxide emissions by more than half – which is good for the global climate and for the household budget.