Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water, Sanitation Jan -Feb 2014 Vol.10 No1 | Page 16

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Bill Gates Drinks Poop
Water, Serves Notice
By Kevin Westerling

the world’s most water-challenged and poor regions —
in India and Africa, for example — it sounds a lot like
the “Utility of the Future” endorsed by the National
Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), the
Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), and
the Water Environment Federation (WEF) here in the U.S.
Bill Gates’ involvement has inspired scads of mainstream
media coverage and thousands of “shares” on social
media from those both in and outside the water/
wastewater industry. I’m swept up in the sharing as well
— the enthusiasm is well-deserved.

Wastewater contains energy that can be
harnessed and utilized

C

redit where it’s due: I didn’t develop the information
I’m sharing — but it’s too good to merely retweet
or “like.” My enthusiasm stems from one of the world’s
most famous, influential, and capable people getting
fully behind sustainable wastewater treatment and direct
potable reuse, bringing widespread attention to typically
underappreciated water issues.
That person is Bill Gates, most notably the multibillionaire co-founder of Microsoft, but also (more to the
point for this story) co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, which works to combat extreme poverty.
Much of the Foundation’s recent focus has been on clean
water availability and sanitation, but has only tangentially
related to what we report at Water Online … until now.
Through social media I was tipped off to the excellent
Wired article about the OmniProcessor from Janicki
Bioenergy. The system, supported and coming into
prominence through Gates’ efforts, converts sewage
sludge into energy and drinking water at low cost ($1.5
million per plant, serving ~100,000 people).
Gates was on-site to sample the water straight from
the machine, was shown in the video and related in
Gates’ own blog, The Gates Notes. According to Peter
Janicki, inventor of the OmniProcessor, the end product
compares favorably to the store-bought bottled water
he tested it against. “Our water meets or exceeds the
standards of every one of those,” quotes Wired.
Furthermore, the sludge creates enough energy to power
the system, and even to sell electricity back to the grid.
The operator can also get paid for accepting the raw
sludge, then paid again for selling the processed sludge
(aka biosolids) as a fertilizer.
While the OmniProcessor is hoped to resolve issues in
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • January - February 2015

Photo by Chesapeake Bay Program

Wastewater contains energy in the form of potential
energy, thermal energy and chemically bound energy,
all of which can be harnessed and utilized. In the USA,
there are 104 wastewater treatment plants using biogas
to produce a total of 190 MW capacity. Wastewater is
increasingly recognized as potential source of energy: in
several countries, water supply companies are working
towards becoming energy-neutral. It is estimated that
more than 80% of used water worldwide -and up to 90%
in developing countries- is neither collected nor treated,
threatening human and environmental health.

Energy is required for pumping and
treating water
Energy is required for two components of water
provision: pumping and treatment (before and after use).
Electricity costs are estimated at 5% to 30% of the total
operating cost of water and wastewater utilities, but in
some developing countries such as India and Bangladesh,
it is as high as 40% of the total operating cost.
World Water Development Report 2014