Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MIMBOX (Mimbox - Greywater optimisation and microplastic mitigation for washing machines)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-10-01 do 2023-03-31
Washing machines consume large amounts of potable water and energy. But even if the industry can make more efficient machines, an unsolved environmental issue is their release of microplastic fibres from synthetic fabric, which are highly damaging for the environment.
With an EU stock of 205M domestic washing machines and 0.82M industrial washing machines, the annual environmental impact in Europe in terms of water, energy, CO2 and microplastics is staggering.
Today’s market does not provide a solution to this microplastic waste and toxic pollutants. The evolution of new machines will eventually mitigate this impact, but the current stock of washers will still be in operation for years (average lifetime of 10+ years).
Tackling the environmental, economic and health problems generated by washing machines therefore requires an affordable solution that can retrofit machines in today’s market.
With an EU stock of 205M domestic washing machines and 0.82M industrial washing machines, the annual environmental impact in Europe in terms of water, energy, CO2 and microplastics is staggering.
Today’s market does not provide a solution to this microplastic waste and toxic pollutants. The evolution of new machines will eventually mitigate this impact, but the current stock of washers will still be in operation for years (average lifetime of 10+ years).
Tackling the environmental, economic and health problems generated by washing machines therefore requires an affordable solution that can retrofit machines in today’s market.
During the first period of the project, Mimbly’s work revolved around the preparation, installation and running of a pilot campaign at several customers in Sweden.
Pilot sites were selected from our motivated customers, based on criteria such as the geographical location of the pilot site, the activity of the customer, the overall occupation rate of the laundry room, etc.
In parallel, work was performed to engineer and design the pilot units that would be tested during the campaign. Efforts were spent on hardware (design and production of the filtration unit, casing, embedded electronics, sourcing, assembly, etc) and on software (refactoring of the embedded software, design and development of an MVP for the IT infrastructure).
6 Mimbox units were produced, 5 were installed at customers and ran in a pilot setup for up to 6 months (1 was kept for continuous improvement efforts).
During the second period of the project, Mimblys work revolved mostly around finalising development and commercialisation of the Mimbox and related activities to that. That includes setting up production, supply chains and operational scaleup.
A lot of effort has been put into setting up a formal partnership with our production facility and creating a production line that works with the mounting of mimboxes. 5 commercial units were produced to validate the production and service as demonstrator units.
On the commercial side, there have been deepened relationships with customers after analysing the feedback from pilots, from both a commercial and R&D perspective and then tuning the business plan accordingly.
The Mimboard has been further developed in order to keep track of the performance of the coming installations of Mimboxes as well as a communications tool towards stakeholders.
Pilot sites were selected from our motivated customers, based on criteria such as the geographical location of the pilot site, the activity of the customer, the overall occupation rate of the laundry room, etc.
In parallel, work was performed to engineer and design the pilot units that would be tested during the campaign. Efforts were spent on hardware (design and production of the filtration unit, casing, embedded electronics, sourcing, assembly, etc) and on software (refactoring of the embedded software, design and development of an MVP for the IT infrastructure).
6 Mimbox units were produced, 5 were installed at customers and ran in a pilot setup for up to 6 months (1 was kept for continuous improvement efforts).
During the second period of the project, Mimblys work revolved mostly around finalising development and commercialisation of the Mimbox and related activities to that. That includes setting up production, supply chains and operational scaleup.
A lot of effort has been put into setting up a formal partnership with our production facility and creating a production line that works with the mounting of mimboxes. 5 commercial units were produced to validate the production and service as demonstrator units.
On the commercial side, there have been deepened relationships with customers after analysing the feedback from pilots, from both a commercial and R&D perspective and then tuning the business plan accordingly.
The Mimboard has been further developed in order to keep track of the performance of the coming installations of Mimboxes as well as a communications tool towards stakeholders.
Mimbly have developed several pieces of technology that is considered beyond the state of the art. Firstly, a product that is plug-and-play to washing machines that can drastically reduce water & energy consumption as well as filter out microplastics is new to the market since there is no similar product. Secondly, the Mimbox consist of several modules that by themselves are unique.
- The Microplastic filter that is able the regenerate its surface and empty in a separate compartment.
- The sensor pack that is able to constantly measure the water quality and the intelligence in the software to determine said parameters.
Mimbly are keen on spreading the positive environmental impact of the mimbox and the work of our customers to the public to help inspire and drive change.
The impact on society will be big due to the fact that Mimbly is a trailblazer in the field of sustainable laundry solutions and that big OEMs are monitoring the progress to see how it unfolds. The pressure on the industry to adapt and be more sustainable will then in turn affect potentially billions of people across the globe.
The communication material installed at the pilot sites focuses on the positive environmental impact of the Mimbox, and highlights the fact that we need to use natural resources in a sustainable way, a message that can be applied in a much wider scope than just laundry.
- The Microplastic filter that is able the regenerate its surface and empty in a separate compartment.
- The sensor pack that is able to constantly measure the water quality and the intelligence in the software to determine said parameters.
Mimbly are keen on spreading the positive environmental impact of the mimbox and the work of our customers to the public to help inspire and drive change.
The impact on society will be big due to the fact that Mimbly is a trailblazer in the field of sustainable laundry solutions and that big OEMs are monitoring the progress to see how it unfolds. The pressure on the industry to adapt and be more sustainable will then in turn affect potentially billions of people across the globe.
The communication material installed at the pilot sites focuses on the positive environmental impact of the Mimbox, and highlights the fact that we need to use natural resources in a sustainable way, a message that can be applied in a much wider scope than just laundry.