Watch the video above: Bill Gates demonstrates the Janicki Omniprocessor and samples the water that was once human waste.
TORONTO – It’s the ultimate in recycling — turning human waste into potable water.
The Bill Gates Foundation has been seeking a way to improve sanitation in poor countries. In doing so, the Foundation sought to find innovative ways to do that. Bring in Janicki Bioenergy.
This Washington-based company has built the Janicki Omniprocessor that takes human waste and turns it into drinkable water as well as energy.
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“The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle. And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day,” said Bill Gates in his blog, Gates Notes. “It’s that safe.”
According to the United Nations, 783 million people around the world do not have access to clean water. A further 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. About 7 million people die each year as a consequence.
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The Omniprocessor takes human waste and burns it around 1,000 C (which, apparently rids it of all of that nasty smell). The boiled water vapour is collected, leaving the sludge that was fed into it dry. That is then burned, which creates steam, which in turn produces electricity. Oh, and the water vapour is also then run through a cleaning system.
This isn’t the first machine to recycle human waste. In 2012, the The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a similar U.K.-based project.
There is also the Water Recovery System on the International Space Station which takes almost all the water aboard the orbiting science platform — including urine — and distills it into drinking water.
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