They still have to test this technology on bigger batches of clothes and build a more sophisticated prototype. GE has partnered with Oak Ridge to help put the ultrasonic dryer on the market. “But it is not an idea that everybody thinks of, because there is a lot of science that goes into it.” “It is not very far-fetched, not very difficult to do,” he says. Venkat Venkatakrishnan, director of research and development at GE Appliances, calls the technology a “big breakthrough.” “This dryer technology has the potential to save somewhere 1 percent of the overall energy consumption of the United States,” he says. The fabric sizzles and steams, and in about 20 seconds, it’s dry. He then douses a small piece of fabric in water and places it on top. It’s basically a small circle of metal called a transducer that he plugs into a battery. Momen’s current prototype looks nothing like a conventional dryer. If I wanted to do the same thing with heat, it’s taking somewhere between 20 to 40 minutes.” “In less than 14 seconds, I could dry a piece of fabric from completely being wet. And Momen thought: What if I use the same technology on a piece of wet fabric? Then, one day, he was thinking about ultrasonic humidifiers - a kind of portable room humidifier that uses high-frequency vibrations to turn water into steam without getting hot. He knows it’s an energy hog, and it takes so long to dry anything. Clothes dryers in the United States use about as much energy each year as the entire state of Massachusetts, according to an estimate from EnergyStar, which is part of the reason the Department of Energy is trying to develop more efficient home appliances.Īmong those making significant progress is Ayyoub Momen, a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

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