Omni processor
The Omni Processor is a trade name for a sewage sludge treatment system that produces purified drinking water and electrical energy as end products from sewage sludge. Manufactured by Janicki Bioenergy, the proof of concept model was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The S100 model costs about $1.5 million, can produce 10,800 liters of drinking water per day and 100 kW net electrical, with a planned larger model S200 designed to handle the waste from 100,000 people, produce 86,000 litres per day and 250 kW net output electrical energy, being a "self-sustaining bioenergy" process.[1][2]
The treatment process first involves boiling the sewage sludge, during which water vapour is boiled off and recovered, leaving a dry sludge which is then combusted as fuel to heat a boiler that in turn produces steam and the heat necessary for the boiling off process. The steam is then used to generate electrical energy. Some of this electrical energy is used for the final water reverse osmosis purification stages to produce safe drinking water, and to power ancillary pumps, fans and motors.
In a publicity stunt in late 2014, Bill Gates drank the water produced from this process which caused wide-spread media attention.[1]
In the media, the process was described as being a solution for developing countries, although many questions around technical and financial aspects remain.[3] In addition, the wastewater from many cities in developing countries is not even collected in sanitary sewers let alone treated in sewage treatment plants, which means no sewage sludge is produced in those cases. With on-site sanitation, sludge from pit latrines first has to be pumped out before treatment, and despite new low-cost pumps being developed[3], only a small fraction of sludge is safely extracted and treated in many African Asian cities.[4]
See Also
References
- ^ a b "BBC news article "Bill Gates drinks water distilled from human faeces"". Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ^ "From poop to portable, This Ingenious Machine Turns Feces Into Drinking Water". gatesnotes, The Blog of Bill Gates. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
- ^ a b "Gates drinks water made from faeces – and so do you!". WaterAid UK. Rémi Kaupp. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
- ^ "The Missing Link in Sanitation Service Delivery, A Review of Fecal Sludge Management in 12 Cities" (PDF). WSP. April 2014.
