Surely, not Microsoft "Mineral Water"?
Bill Gates Funds New Machine That Filters Your Toilet Waste Back Into "Drinkable" Water.
Next time you see a dog lapping thirstily at a toilet bowl, pause for thought - next time, it could be you. A new invention - funded by Bill Gates - aims to turn used toilet water into drinking water.
The innovation - which has been funded by billionaire Bill Gates - could transform the lives of millions of people in the third world.
Manchester University’s Sarah Haigh
is an expert in nanotechnology - the science of manipulating atoms in matter - and says, it could make waste water from toilets safe to drink.
Haigh believes a new range of materials could extract energy from human waste.
Although the result may not be bottled mineral water, the researcher says the results could be the difference between life-and-death in regions without clean water.
She said: ‘I get a lot of comments about the research I do. I don’t mind people making jokes as long as they’re clean ones.
‘There has been a lot of research into biofuels. There is a lot of energy already present in human waste. Nano-scale materials mean that you can harvest the hydrogen and turn it into hydrozene - which is basically rocket fuel.
The expert, from Manchester University’s school of materials, believes that a scaffold device holding a mixture of bacteria and tiny metal nano-particles will react with the water to extract useful hydrogen, with the remainder filtered again to produce clean water.
Dr Haigh, who working with scientists at Imperial College London and Durham University, was given an initial $100,000 (£63,000) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Their idea for an inexpensive fuel-producing, water-cleaning device for the developing world, beat more than 2,000 other proposals.
And the group stand to receive a further $1m from the Gates next year if they can demonstrate the chemical reactions they propose can actually work.
The Microsoft founder - one of the world’s richest men - has promised to sink his fortune on combating worldwide poverty.
The researchers plan to have a prototype ready to demonstrate by 2013. Dr Haigh said: ‘The phrase ‘off to spend a penny’ is used in polite society to refer to a visit to the lavatory.
We plan to turn this essential everyday outgoing into an investment by developing novel materials that convert natural waste into a useable resource.
‘This technology will be particularly important for remote locations in developing countries and will have the added benefits of reduced pollution and lower waste disposal costs,’ she said.
So, just think about the essence of what you're drinking with you open, maybe, that next bottle of Evian, Volvic or some other "mineral water" and just relish its origins!
~~~ Your thoughts?
Read More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-212...
The real problem is (including Michigan) too many municipalities want to install sewer systems to do what a septic system already does. I can tell you first hand every community in SE Michigan in Livingston County and others with sewer systems has complaints up the wazoo about cost and inefficiencies. So, Microsoft comes up with a new way of handling waste? Okay, but prove to me how it is so much better and less expensive than the common septic system used in millions of homes across the country.
If cost effective, maybe Bill Gates' system could be used in a larger scale in urban areas. However, one of Murphy's Laws comes to mind: "If you improve something enough times, eventually it doesn't work any more."
These people don't even make use of toilets installed for them. What makes anyone think they'll embrace toilets that generate fresh water? I hope I'm wrong about this, but there's precious little evidence I am.