Imagine that the approximately 2.5 billion people who lack accessibility to proper sanitation could drink clean water from contaminated water in a matter of minutes. Bill Gates believes this could be a reality. In a new video posted on his blog, Gates is seen drinking water that was once poop while demonstrating a machine that could change the game for clean drinking water.
The co-founder of the Gates Foundation shows off the machine called the OmniProcessor, which is manufactured by Janicki Bioenergy in a facility just north of Seattle, Washington. The Janicki OmniProcessor converts sewer sludge into clean water, electricity and sterile ash that can be in turn used as fertilizer.
Sewer sludge enters a dryer via a conveyor belt where it is boiled. In this drying process, water vapor is separated from the solids. The solids then enter the fire phase, where high pressure steam is created. The steam then enters a steam engine which is sent to a generator to make electricity that is used to fuel the processor. The excess is sent to the community.
To make clean water, the water vapor is then sent into a cleaning system, making it safe to drink. In just five minutes, poop water is converted into safe drinking water, and Gates gulps it down.
"I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyor belt and drop into a large bin," he writes on his blog. "They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water..."
Gates says that the next-generation of the OmniProcessor would be able to handle waste from 100,000 people. This means it could produce as much as 86,000 liters of clean water.
"The sanitation system as we know it in the developed world cannot work in developing countries," says Senior Program Officer Doulaye Kone. "What we need in developing countries is a very simple system."
And Gates believes this is the perfect solution. Watch the video of Gates drinking the water in the video below.
[Photo Credit: thegatesnotes/ YouTube]
