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Bill Gates Endorses Water From Human Waste

Posted by Soulskill on from the bottoms-up dept.

theodp writes: GeekWire reports that Bill gates is certainly leading by example, appearing in a video in which he sips "a glass of delicious drinking water" produced from human waste processed by Janicki Bioenergy's OmniProcessor, which can take sewer sludge and turn it into clean drinking water, electricity and clean ash. So how was it? "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," said Bill. "And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It's that safe."

20 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. A Natural by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I mean the guy already excelled at selling SHIT to people for years...

    1. Re:A Natural by westlake · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I mean the guy already excelled at selling SHIT to people for years...

      Cheap shot gets an instant mod-up, to "Insightful," no surprise there.

    2. Re:A Natural by Barny · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And such is the fickle nature of the mods.

      On topic, people would have to note statistically, every molecule of H2O has at some time been inside a creature. So we are all drinking sewage/waste/carrion water.

      --
      ...
      /me sighs
    3. Re:A Natural by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And it doesn't seem to be hurting the astronauts on the ISS (from the year 2000)

      The ECLSS Water Recycling System (WRS), developed at the MSFC, will reclaim waste waters from the Space Shuttle's fuel cells, from urine, from oral hygiene and hand washing, and by condensing humidity from the air. Without such careful recycling 40,000 pounds per year of water from Earth would be required to resupply a minimum of four crewmembers for the life of the station.

      Not even research animals are excused from the program.

      "Lab animals on the ISS breath and urinate, too, and we plan to reclaim their waste products along with the crew's. A full complement of 72 rats would equal about one human in terms of water reclamation," says Layne Carter, a water-processing specialist at the MSFC.

      It might sound disgusting, but water leaving the space station's purification machines will be cleaner than what most of us drink on Earth.

      "The water that we generate is much cleaner than anything you'll ever get out of any tap in the United States," says Carter. "We certainly do a much more aggressive treatment process (than municipal waste water treatment plants). We have practically ultra-pure water by the time our water's finished."

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  2. One man's piss is another man's ... by Defenestrar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Water's water - given the diffusion time we're probably all drinking King Tut's piss today (not to mention plenty of other peoples/animals).

    1. Re:One man's piss is another man's ... by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 4, Informative

      Maybe if you are talking about each individual water molecule. But if you take any given glass of water, it no doubt contains water molecules that were part of Napoleon's piss.

      There are more water molecules in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in the ocean.

    2. Re:One man's piss is another man's ... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Human waste contains heaps of harmful bacteria.

      Poo? Yes. Piss? No.

      Your kidneys filter at the molecular level and thus are VERY good at preventing bacteria from entering your bladder. If bacteria ever entered your bladder, you'd routinely have bladder and/or urinary tract infections, namely because no blood flows to those regions so you have no T cells to combat it. While urine smells foul and probably tastes worse, it wouldn't kill you to drink it. (But still don't do it anyways because it contains waste materials that your kidneys removed from your blood for a very good reason.)

      That said, we also have the artificial means of doing the filtering job that kidneys do, so it wouldn't surprise me if this technique also worked on poo.

      If I am going to drink water recycled in this manner, I'd prefer to have the engineering studied by an independant water quality professional, say, an environmental engineer? And for the output water to be studied by health professionals and microbiologists.

      Bill Gates didn't invent it, and he isn't trying to sell it to you either. Chances are you'll probably never even see one unless either you're a humanitarian aide worker and/or you live in a third world country. He's trying to promote it as a means of helping people who have difficulty accessing potable water.

    3. Re:One man's piss is another man's ... by niftydude · · Score: 4, Funny

      Would you rather they tested it on some poor mouse?

      I see your point. The correct lab testing protocol should be CEOs, then lawyers, then lab rats, and then finally humans.

      --
      You can never know everything, and part of what you do know will always be wrong. Perhaps even the most important part.
    4. Re:One man's piss is another man's ... by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Informative

      that's an understatement, there are more molecules of water in a glass of water ( 2 * 10 ^ 25) than there are estimated stars in the visible universe (10 ^ 24).

  3. Bear Grylls by mjwx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bear Grylls could not be reached for comment.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  4. Obligatory Dilbert by matthiasvegh · · Score: 4, Funny

    http://www.dilbert.com/2012-11...

  5. Welcome to water treatment.... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Where do people think their water comes from? Dependent on your location it is either pulled from a dam / river / ocean which has shit, corpses (animal and human), bacteria and all sorts of nasties or it comes from a waste water treatment plant after the solid waste has been removed.

    The process is the same, ram the water under pressure against a membrane. Water goes through, other stuff doesn't. The biggest challenge is actually the medication that goes into the waste water system. It generally means that the solid waste that is removed by your treatment plant can't be used directly without additional treatment.

     

    1. Re:Welcome to water treatment.... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember that story. From what I remember that water was supposedly on the clean side of the treatment process. What I don't understand is how they stopped birds crapping in it (spoiler - they didn't).

    2. Re:Welcome to water treatment.... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Informative

      That isn't quite correct. Membrane style water treatment systems do remove the vast majority of medications. Also commonly referred to as Reverse Osmosis plants the process they use is exceptional at removing everything bar the water itself.

      The problems come from where the treatment approach is purely using chlorination to sterilise the water. This obviously removes nothing.

      So it's actually the opposite way around from what you have said. Older chlorination style systems don't remove the medication but modern RO plants do. And essentially RO is the way to go if you are building a plant.

  6. Re:A pretty low bar by Livius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suppose it frequently tastes a better than metropolitan city water though...

    Unlikely, since it frequently is metropolitan city water.

  7. RTFA. by westlake · · Score: 5, Informative
    I have grown more than a little weary of the geek's lame attempts at humor at Gate's expense.

    Why would anyone want to turn waste into drinking water and electricity?

    Because a shocking number of people, at least 2 billion, use latrines that aren't properly drained. Others simply defecate out in the open. The waste contaminates drinking water for millions of people, with horrific consequences: Diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000 children every year, and they prevent many more from fully developing mentally and physically.

    If we can develop safe, affordable ways to get rid of human waste, we can prevent many of those deaths and help more children grow up healthy.

    Western toilets aren't the answer, because they require a massive infrastructure of sewer lines and treatment plants that just isn't feasible in many poor countries.

    One idea is to reinvent the toilet, which I've written about before.

    Another idea is to reinvent the sewage treatment plant.

    Today, in many places without modern sewage systems, truckers take the waste from latrines and dump it into the nearest river or the ocean --- or at a treatment facility that doesn't actually treat the sewage. Either way, it often ends up in the water supply. If they took it to the Omniprocessor instead, it would be burned safely. The machine runs at such a high temperature (1000 degrees Celsius) that there's no nasty smell; in fact it meets all the emissions standards set by the U.S. government.

    Before we even started the tour, I had a question: Don't modern sewage plants already incinerate waste? I learned that some just turn the waste into solids that are stored in the desert. Others burn it using diesel or some other fuel that they buy. That means they use a lot of energy, which makes them impractical in most poor countries.

    The Omniprocessor solves that problem. Through the ingenious use of a steam engine, it produces more than enough energy to burn the next batch of waste. In other words, 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 liters of potable water a day and a net 250 kw of electricity.

    From Poop To Potable: This Ingenious Machine Turns Feces Into Drinking Water

    1. Re:RTFA. by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because a shocking number of people, at least 2 billion, use latrines that aren't properly drained. Others simply defecate out in the open. The waste contaminates drinking water for millions of people, with horrific consequences: Diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000 children every year, and they prevent many more from fully developing mentally and physically.

      And the ancient Romans figured this out, and solved it.

      It does not require the massive infrastructure that starts with Western toilets to solve this problem. It can be done with wood and stone and gravity, assembled using nothing more than muscle power. The fact that 2 billion people (with far more muscle power at their disposal than the ancient Romans ever had) haven't speaks volumes about the 2 billion people.

  8. Why is this shocking to anyone? by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did anyone really think Bill Gates would have the opinion "We can never drink water molecules that used to have poop next to them. That's just gross."

    People can be skeptical whether a particular water purification process is adequate, but anyone who thinks water can't be purified is just an idiot and probably also homophobic (i.e. the category of people who are compelled to irrationality regarding things that seem gross to them).

    Say what you want about Bill Gates, but he doesn't seem like the type to be idiotically irrational.

  9. Re:All water is recycled by WillKemp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Remember, that delicious tap water was once pooped in by a dinosaur.

    Maybe. But dinosaurs didn't take pharmaceutical drugs.

  10. Dissipointed in the quality of the comments I see. by Koatdus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guess I expect more intellegence from slashdot readers, it used to be that way any way.

    Comments about "Gates selling shit" and "its faked" do nothing except show that you are ignorant and childish. What comes out of that unit is both distilled and then filtered (probably some sort of reverse osmosis filter that could do an ok job of cleaning the water on its own.) Since it is distilled there is no bacteria in it unless it it has been recontaminated further down the line.

    The whole point of this is that there are plenty of places in the world with not much in the line of clean drinkable water. People live in those places. Poor people living in poor countries that can't afford (or chose not to) provide clean drinking water to thier people. Those peoples health and well being would be greatly improved by having safe clean water available. Their lifestyle and economic well being would be greatly improved if that water was available somewhere close to where they live.

    Here is a solution that will take something that is found in abundance everywhere humans and their animals live and turn it in to something that is needed and desired enough that a person may be able to make a living running the thing. It is a solution that a small company (or village) could afford, as opposed to something costing tens of millions of dollars.

    Here is a link to the web site of a small town in the US that just spent $21 million on a treatment plant plus another 30 million on sewage lines:

    https://www.gocolumbiamo.com/P...

    How many little third world villages do you suppose can raise $51 million?

    Way to go Mr Gates!

    --
    Every wrong attempt discarded is a step forward - T. Edison