Bill Gates Turns Human Waste Into Drinking Water

Bill Gates’ effort to fight poverty and improve living conditions for millions around the world living below the poverty line have just hit new heights.

Gates recently drank water made out of human waste to demonstrate the Omni Processor, a machine created by Janicki Bioenergy as part of the Gates Foundation’s striving for better sanitation.

“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,” Gates wrote on his blog.

According to Peter Janicki of Janicki Industries, the water meets or exceeds the U.S. standards for drinking water, meaning it could help up to 2 billion people who currently live without proper sewage systems and sanitary drinking water.

The Omni Processor features a steam engine that burns waste, and according to Gates, “it powers itself, with electricity to spare. The next-generation processor, more advanced than the one I saw, will handle waste from 100,000 people, producing up to 86,000 litres of potable water a day and a net 250 kw of electricity”.

The Omni Processor will be first used in Dakar, Senegal, as part of a pilot project to test its functionality in the real world.