Which washing powder saves more energy?

What is biological washing powder?

“A biological detergent is a laundry detergent that contains enzymes harvested
from micro-organisms such as bacteria adapted to live in hot springs “1 (By Wikipedia)

Research question:
Biological washing powder saves energy as it works at lower temperature than non-
biological washing powders.

Aim:
My aim is to find out if biological powders save energy or not.

Hypothesis:
I hypothesize that biological powder works better than non-biological powder with a high
temperature because it has enzymes that remove stains. Types of enzymes can remove
protein stains, starch, fat and remove greasy stains. The enzymes and the washing powder
dissolve better in high temperature water so it should save more energy.

Dependent variable:
- Boiling water
Independent variable:
- Washing powder (biological and non-biological)

Controlled variables:

- Temperature of the water (hot/boiling)

- Amount of Washing Powder

Equipment:
- Non-biological powder – 1 teaspoon
- Biological Washing powder – 1 teaspoon
- Kettle
- 2 glass beakers (100ml)
- 100ml of water
- Safety googles
- Thermometer
- 2 Trays (to lay the cloths in)
- Ketchup (to stain the cloths)
- 2 stained pieces of cloth
Method:
1. Put your safety googles on, remove seat and push them into the bench,
2. Put 1 teaspoon of each washing powder into 2 separate beakers,
3. Boil 100ml of water in a kettle, boil it until its around 70 degrees
4. Pour the water into a tray
5. Let it cool down to 45 degrees Celsius,
6. Insert a thermometer to make sure that the water stays 45 degrees Celsius,
 7. Pour the washing powder,
8. Stir the mixture with a stirring rod,
9. Put the dirty cloth in the mixture once the mixture is dissolved and mix it carefully
not touching the stain so it doesn’t come off with the stirring rod,
10. Repeat the process with each specimen 3 times for each washing powder or put all 3
cloths at the same time for a more accurate result.
Results:

Washing powder Trial 1 (45 degrees) Trial 2 (45 degrees) Trial 3 (45 degrees)
Non-bio Was the 2nd fastest Was the fastest Was slowest
Biological Was the slowest Was the fastest Was 2nd fastest

Non-bio:

Bio:

Presenting collected data:

What do my results mean?

What do my results mean?

My results mean that biological washing powders leave no stains on your clothes however,
non-biological it left very light stains. This is because the biological powder has natural
products that dissolve the stains. The stains were left for the same amount of days to dry
and were washed at the same temperature so this answer should be accurate.

Evaluating hypothesis:

“I hypothesize that biological powder works better than non-biological powder with a high
temperature because it has enzymes that remove stains. Types of enzymes can remove
protein stains, starch, fat and remove greasy stains. The enzymes and the washing powder
dissolve better in high temperature water so it should save more energy.” My hypothesis is
correct because the biological powder worked better than the non- biological powder
because of its enzymes stains in the high temperature. If the biological washing powder
works better than the non-biological one it means it saves water since they were both
tested at 45 degrees Celsius.

Evaluating method:

My method is easy to follow and effective. My dependent was kept controlled because we
boiled the water, measured the temperature until 45 degrees and then put the cloth inside
the water so we controlled it. My results are reliable because we put all the cloths at the
same time in the tray so trial 1, 2 and 3 would all have the same temperature of water and
washing powder. The water in both trays was measured to be 45 degrees so the
temperature wouldn’t have affected the results. In the washing machine, you don’t put one
piece of clothing to wash at a time so to put all the cloths together makes the results more
accurate. We used a thermometer to measure the temperature and the kettle had labels
saying how many ml of water we were using. We made it 100ml for each tray so too. Even
though the method was easy to follow and to proceed the experiment too however,

Errors:

Error: How would I change this? How would it affect my

I didn’t explain h0w big the
tray was to lay in the cloths.
results?
Measure the length, width Then the person testing
and how deep it is. knows what type of tray to
use, how many cloths they
can fit in it and how much
water they should put in the
tray.
Bibliography:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_detergent
2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/triple_ocr_gateway/beyond_th
e_microscope/enzymes_in_action/revision/2/