Hasta La Ideas

The conventional way to clean greasy dishes is by applying a surfactant, like dishwashing soap. The surfactant’s paradoxical combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules—the former is attracted to water, the latter repelled by it—essentially separate the grease from the surface of the dish, allowing us to rinse or scrub it off.

This invention here, however, can clean grease from dishes without soap or surfactants. Japanese manufacturer Science Group specializes in “fine bubble technology.” They’ve harnessed their technology into a sink faucet, the Mirable Kitchen, that produces a stream of water loaded with tiny bubbles that can do the job of a surfactant.

“More than 16 million ultra-fine bubbles absorb grease and grime and wash it away,” the company writes. “They also have a high penetration power into the skin, keeping your hands moisturized.”

Here’s a demo where they rinse a glass that looks to have held a Bloody Mary:

I believe they’ve chosen the vessel purposefully; the shape of the base, with its undercut, would be inconvenient to scrub out mechanically. The bubble method does indeed look more convenient, not to mention the soap savings. You can see how their technology could generate significant cost savings in, say, a commercial kitchen.

Fascinatingly, the technology has its roots in an ugly aspect of schoolyard society: Bullying.

Twenty years ago, engineer Yasuaki Aoyama’s elementary-school-aged daughter had a problem. Taking baths and showers caused rashes across her skin, which led to her being bullied at school. Doctors and hospitals could not find the problem; it was as if water itself caused his daughter’s skin to become inflamed.

Aoyama researched scientific literature and learned that a portion of the population has a skin reaction to chlorine in tap water. He subsequently invented a showerhead that could be loaded with chlorine-dissolving chemicals. This improved his daughter’s condition.

However, it still required using chemicals. Pushing further, Aoyama learned that industrial facilities used ultrasonic waves in water to produce small bubbles, and that this was used to clean microchips and electronic components.

Aoyama spent several years wrangling the technology into a showerhead which could produce bubbles just 3 micrometers in diameter. This produced a stream of water that could wash both dirt and chlorine out of human pores. Today these showerheads, produced by Aoyama’s Science Group company, are used by Japanese hospitals and prized for their ability to thoroughly clean.

As for the kitchen faucet applications: The company claims that the bubble-infused water, when used for cooking, actually improves flavor.

“It has the potential to make not only dishwashing but also cooking itself more delicious and enjoyable. In rice cooking experiments, it was found that ultra-fine bubble water cooked rice with a glossy white color and plumpness that was more delicious than rice cooked with regular tap water. Ultra-fine bubble water is thought to have high penetration power, and we are currently conducting experiments to see if there is a difference in the speed of extraction and penetration, especially in the initial stages. Our research team will continue to focus on various possibilities together with science and conduct research.”