| Bill Gates Gets Into The Toilet Business
|
engine
msg:4485040 | 1:36 pm on Aug 15, 2012 (gmt 0) |
Bill Gates Gets Into The Toilet Business [bbc.co.uk] The Gates Foundation has committed $370m (£235m) to its future toilet initiative and hopes to field test the prototypes within three years.
|
|
At the Reinvent the Toilet fair, hosted at its Seattle campus this week, designs included a lavatory that used microwave energy to turn poo into electricity.
Another turned excrement into charcoal, while a third used urine for flushing.
In total 28 designs were shown off at the fair and the winner was a team from the California Institute of Technology.
Led by Prof Michael Hoffman, the toilet they designed was solar-powered and generated hydrogen gas and electricity. They won a $100,000 prize.
|
|
The project challenged inventors to come up with a toilet that operated without running water, electricity or a septic system. It needed to operate at a cost of no more than five cents (3p) a day and would ideally capture energy or other resources.
|
|
|
Leosghost
msg:4485048 | 1:54 pm on Aug 15, 2012 (gmt 0) |
I thought mac' was back when I saw the subject :)
|
matrix_jan
msg:4485128 | 5:05 pm on Aug 15, 2012 (gmt 0) |
Gates sticks his nose into lot of things, no wonder it was the toilet (business) this time.
Previous stick-jobs: With Vaccines, Bill Gates Changes The World Again
[forbes.com...]
|
Old_Honky
msg:4485552 | 5:37 pm on Aug 16, 2012 (gmt 0) |
| The project challenged inventors to come up with a toilet that operated without running water, electricity or a septic system. It needed to operate at a cost of no more than five cents (3p) a day and would ideally capture energy or other resources. |
|
Can I claim the prize, my invention derived from a study on ursine toilet behaviour, is called "The Woods"
|
jecasc
msg:4485556 | 5:38 pm on Aug 16, 2012 (gmt 0) |
@Leosghost
Yes, I remember we had a lot more toilet talk here in foo, when he was still around. I just checked in his profile - his last post was 7 years ago. God, how time flies.
|
skibum
msg:4491167 | 8:10 am on Sep 4, 2012 (gmt 0) |
Water will be the next oil in short supply with escalating prices before too much longer. Get a zero water toilet and it's gonna help out a lot of people all around the world if it can be installed across a large user base.
|
|
|
