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This Bill-Gates-Backed Magic Machine Turns Raw Sewage Into Drinking Water--and Creates Electricity!

By Rain Noe - January 7, 2015

in Social Impact

Two years ago, The Gates Foundation's Reinventing the Toilet Challenge sought to design basic sanitation for those who don't have it—a staggering 40% of Earth's population. Now Bill Gates is taking it a step further, backing a machine that can solve two pressing problems at once. The Omniprocessor, as it's called, not only gets rid of feces, but turns them into clean water.

I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyer belt and drop into a large bin. 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.

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. It's that safe.

Developed by Seattle-based engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy, the machine cleanly burns feces at a temperature so hot that "there's no nasty smell," according to Gates. "In fact it meets all the emissions standards set by the U.S. government." And while producing drinking water is impressive enough, that's not even the kicker: The machine also generates electricity--enough to power itself and have juice to spare.

The method they've created to power the machine is pretty ingenious. Check it out:

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Dan

9 years ago

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By the same token you could extract drinking water and electricity out of wood, but just because no-one likes the thought of human waste, now it's ok to burn it? How is this not going to make just more CO2?
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CROUE

9 years ago

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I am sure this idea is pretty brilliant, however the video seems to take for granted the energy spent in running this machine, for example what amount of fuel is spent in producing the fire and the conversion to steam. Just curious from an engineering point of view... how efficient is this system?
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powers

9 years ago

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Finally the man makes something I'd want in my home! But how do we, the viewer, know it's not moonshine?
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KROBUZ

9 years ago

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Just being curious: I wonder what happens to the chemicals that are found in raw sewage. Sewage, especially in urban areas, is a lot more than just urine and feces. People dump chemicals down their drains and toilets, chemo patients expel radioactive waste, and pharmaceuticals cannot easily be taken out of the water either. Even if the water is 100% pure in the end, the incinerated waste can potentially contain hundreds of toxic chemicals which in turn create a toxic output.

That said, I think is fantastic that is covers so many solutions in one machine. I just really want to know how it works.

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