Bill Gates' latest passion: A machine that turns poop into water

See also: An Open Letter From Bill Gates

"I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyor belt and drop into a large bin," Gates, the Microsoft cofounder and billionaire philanthropist, wrote in a blog post on Monday. "They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water."
The jarring juxtaposition is intentional. Gates intends to get the word out to the masses about the machine, which is part of a Gates Foundation effort to improve sanitation in poor countries. "The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle," Gates continued. "And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It’s that safe."
As the video below explains, the machine, called the Janicki Omniprocessor, turns sewer sludge into electricity, clean drinking water and ash. The machine, named after Janicki Bioenergy CEO Peter Janicki, dries the waste and then burns it, creating steam that powers an engine that creates electricity. Meanwhile, the water removed from the sludge is filtered, creating clean water.