Gates supports water-from-waste technology
Bill Gates is supporting the development of drinking water made from human waste in a move that could see improved sanitation and access to water delivered to developing counties
Bill Gates is supporting the development of drinking water made from human waste in a move that could see improved sanitation and access to water delivered to developing counties.
The Microsoft founder announced this week that he is backing the Omnipressor technology that has been designed and built by Seattle based engineering company Janicki Bioenergy.
The Omnipressor burns human waste and produces water and electricity and the news of Gates’ support comes ahead of a major new pilot project for the technology in Senegal.
The waste is boiled and water vapour is separated from the solids, which are fed into a furnace, producing steam that is used to drive a generator that produces enough electricity to power the processor and supply the local community.
The water vapour is put through a cleaning system and condensed to produce drinking water.
The process takes around five minutes and could provide a clean drinking water solution for approximately 2.5 billion people without access to safe sanitation.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has handed out grants worth around US$32 billion and is supporting the project in Senegal.
The Foundation is also assisting Janicki in developing a new processor capable of handling waste from 100,000 people and could producing up to 86,000 litres of potable water per day and 250kW of electricity.
A blog post by Gates said: "Our goal is to make the processors cheap enough that entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries will want to invest in them and then start profitable waste-treatment businesses. If things go well in Senegal, we'll start looking for partners in the developing world. For example I think it could be a great fit in India, where there are lots of entrepreneurs who could own and operate the processors, as well as companies with the skill to manufacture many of the parts."