Bill Gates has blogged, done interviews, and even made an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” to promote the Omniprocessor, the latest project from the philanthropic Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Omniprocessor is a machine that turns human waste into clean water and electricity.

Gates says at least two billion people around the world don't have access to clean water and sanitation. "We challenged engineers to make something that could take sewage and very inexpensively get rid of sewage," Gates told Fallon.

"Sewage is bad. It causes a lot of diseases – like diarrhea - because people don't have good sanitation systems. We said it's way too expensive, the way the rich countries do it. Make something we can put throughout Africa and get rid of all that sewage."

“Diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000 children every year," Gates says, "and they prevent many more from fully developing mentally and physically."

The Omniprocessor, with development led by the Seattle-based engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy, solves this problem by extracting water from sewage. Sewage arrives at the facility and is dried, incinerated to create steam, which powers the Omniprocessor. The only Omniprocessor prototype is located just north of Seattle, but there are plans for a pilot project in Dakar, Senegal, later in 2015. From there, they hope to expand.

Janicki Bioenergy contacted Prater early last year, and in May of 2014, ordered two, 6-in. heavy-duty rotary airlocks for the wastewater project. Then in February of 2014, Janicki ordered two more of the same 6-in. Prater rotary airlocks to support the project expansion. A representative from Janicki said, “Prater was selected because they were competitively priced and able to accommodate the project schedule. We’ve been very happy with the performance of Prater’s product.”

Airlock sales manager, Brent McIntosh said, “It’s such an exciting project to be a part of.”  

Watch the video showing how the Omiprocessor works

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