Bill Gates’ philanthropic activities is well known to all, and in the past we’ve seen Gates attempt to fund all sorts of projects that would improve the lives of many in third world countries. Recently Gates was part of a project that had the ability to turn human waste into actual drinking water and while the technology itself is amazing, what made it more amazing was Gates’ willingness to drink the actual product.
Posting on his blog, Gates shared the process in which the human waste was transformed into drinkable water before consuming a glass himself, and according to Gates, it seemed that the water tasted just like any water he’s ever drunk. “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.”
Gates went on to describe the project, “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.”
The time the process took to turn the waste into drinking water reportedly took about 5 minutes, which is a bit of a wait, but in countries where access to drinking water can be difficult, that 5 minutes could be worth waiting for. In the meantime you can check out the video above which details how the machine works, and where you can see Gates try the end product himself.
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