innovation
Burning feces and recycled urine: Bill Gates and Samsung develop high-tech toilet
This is what the toilet developed by Samsung and the Gates Foundation could look like – a design has not yet been decided (symbol image)
© Cigdem Simsek/ / Picture Alliance
A toilet that works without a conventional sewage system? Samsung and the Gates Foundation made the prototype of such a toilet. Developing countries in particular could benefit from the innovation.
Is the end of toilets as we know them? The South Korean company Samsung announced last week that it had developed a prototype for a new type of toilet together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2011, the foundation of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda started what they called the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge”. The initiative aims to develop new toilet technologies that can safely and effectively dispose of human feces. As part of this, Samsung and the Gates Foundation have teamed up to develop a toilet that doesn’t require a typical waste water system and instead efficiently treats waste water.
Developing countries should be able to acquire patents free of license fees
Heat treatment and bioprocessing technologies aim to kill pathogens in human waste and make wastewater environmentally safe. The system completely recycles the water used. Liquid waste is cleaned using a biological process and turned back into clean water. Solid waste, on the other hand, is dehydrated, dried and incinerated to ash.
According to Samsung, developing countries should receive royalty-free licenses for patents for the high-tech toilet. The company and the Gates Foundation plan to continue their collaboration to bring the toilet technologies into mass production.They are currently looking for industrial partners for marketing and design.
3.6 billion people still do not have access to safe sanitation facilities
Bill Gates is said to have been personally involved in the development process of the toilet. According to Samsung, he met with Samsung Vice Chairman Jay Lee in early August to discuss how the company could bring the toilet to those people who need it most.
According to the WHO and the United Nations, around two billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 3.6 billion lack safe sanitation. This sometimes leads to the fact that every year 500,000 children under the age of five die of diarrheal diseases.