Bill Gates and his foundation have supported numerous projects. His efforts to fight malaria are well known, but he has also explored concepts like efficient toilets and futuristic condoms. Now, the philanthropist has decided to invest in the Janicki Omniprocessor, a system that transforms sewage into electricity and safe water for human consumption.
Believe it or not, many things begin in the bathroom... but others end there. One of them is waste, our waste, and for the sake of mental health, we don't need to go into specific details. The point is that in the "developed" world, as politicians and economists like to say, handling biological needs takes a few minutes and a significant amount of water, while some "developing" countries lack basic infrastructure to process waste, leading to contamination of water sources and food. Bill Gates tells us that diseases caused by sanitation problems are killing 700,000 children a year. But the underlying goal isn't just to process waste, but to make something useful out of it.
How the Omniprocessor Works
The video you just watched shows Bill Gates visiting the headquarters of Janicki Bioenergy, a company developing the Omniprocessor, a treatment system that produces electric energy and safe water from so-called "fecal sludge". First, the sludge is transported to a chamber that "boils" it, separating water vapor and solid elements. Once dry, the waste is thrown into a high-temperature furnace (over a thousand degrees, so there's no smell), which in turn generates high-pressure steam. The steam is sent to an engine connected to a generator, producing the electricity the Omniprocessor needs, with excess going to the grid. The water vapor from the first separation is then purified to create water ready for consumption.
The current prototype of the Janicki Omniprocessor is in Seattle, but the next "pilot test" will take place in Senegal. In theory, the next generation will be able to process waste for a hundred thousand people, producing up to 250 kilowatts and 86,000 liters of safe water per day. The Omniprocessor also opens up business opportunities: an investor would receive money for "accepting" the waste, generating electricity, and distributing water. Those in charge of the project have a lot of work ahead, but we'll be following closely.
