Want... The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced the winners of the first Reinvent the Toilet Challenge (RTTC) of China in Beijing, Jan. 26, reports Shanghai-based The Paper.
The RTTC in China is part of the global program under the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WSH) initiative of the foundation.
Proposals from Beijing's Tsinghua University, the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Beijing's EnviroSystems Engineering and Technology gained approval from international expert judges of the foundation with their innovative solutions to filtering and recycling sewage and toilet water. In total they have been granted US$2.08 million in funds.
The second round of the project kicked off on the same day to invite individuals or research teams interested in "reinventing the toilet" to submit their preliminary proposals before March 5. The project was started in August 2013 with a US$5 million fund from the foundation.
In a video that has recently gone viral, Bill Gates drinks processed sewage water from a machine named OmniProcessor, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and designed by Washington-based Janicki Bioenergy.
By-products of the OmniProcessor, in addition to clean water, are electricity and organic matter that can be used as fertilizer. The machine will be used on in a trial run in Senegal.
The proposed machines of the four Chinese winners have a chance to advance to the trials stage, said the report. According to the competition contract, samples have to be made before the foundation can evaluate whether they are fit for use and promotion.
Prototypes of sewage processors designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other institutes have been implemented in some remote areas in China.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiated the program to fund research projects aimed to develop sanitary, waterless, energy and cost-efficient "next-generation toilets" that can help improve the hygiene of the 2.5 billion people without basic sanitation facilities in developing countries. The reinvented toilets are also expected to help improve the sewage processing of developed societies.
References:
Tsinghua University 清華大學
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology 上海理工大學
Beijing University of Chemical Technology 北京化工大學
EnviroSystems Engineering and Technology 萬若（北京）環境工程技術有限公司