Samsung has announced that it has finished working on a prototype toilet with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of Bill Gates’ Reinvent the Toilet Challenge project. This prototype is a toilet designed for home use and uses heat treatment and biotreatment to kill pathogens in human waste.
These processes make waste and solids safe for the environment. Since there is a shortage of water in some places, the toilet purifies the water so that it can be reused. Samsung states that solid wastes are dried and turned into ashes, while urine is purified by biological treatment.
While most people in developed countries do not think much about the toilet, there are about 3.6 billion people who do not have access to these facilities. About half a million children under the age of five die each year from diarrheal diseases caused by a lack of access to clean water and hygiene.
To help countries get this product into more people’s homes, Samsung plans to offer developing countries royalty-free patent licenses for this project. This information sharing will take place during the commercialization phase. As design becomes more efficient, Samsung and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will find industry partners to help bring the product to market.
This isn’t the first toilet project Bill Gates has been involved in. Seven years ago, Gates also invested in a machine that turns waste into water and electricity.
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