Bill Gates is funding a new contraption that filters toilet waste back into 'drinkable' water.
Yes, that's right, the new invention, funded by Bill Gates, plans to turn used toilet water into drinking water.
Manchester University’s Sarah Haigh (above photo) is an expert in nanotechnology - the science of manipulating atoms in matter - and she claims, it could make waste water from toilets safe to drink.
A mixture of bacteria and tiny metal nano-particles will react with the nasty water to extract useful hydrogen, with the remainder filtered again to produce clean water.
The project which has been funded by billionaire Bill Gates has the possibility to transform a range of materials that could extract energy from human waste.
Sarah Haigh says, "I get a lot of comments about the research I do. I don’t mind people making jokes as long as they’re clean ones."
"There has been a lot of research into biofuels. There is a lot of energy already present in human waste. Nano-scale materials mean that you can harvest the hydrogen and turn it into hydrozene - which is basically rocket fuel."
She believes that a scaffold device holding a mixture of bacteria and tiny metal nano-particles will react with the water to extract useful hydrogen, with the remainder filtered again to produce clean water.
Dr Haigh, who working with scientists at Imperial College London and Durham University, was given an initial $100,000 (£63,000) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
And the group stand to receive $1million from the Gates next year if they show how the chemical reactions they propose can actually work.
The researchers plan to have a prototype ready to demonstrate by 2013.
They plan on turning this essential everyday outing into an investment by developing materials that convert natural waste into a useable resource.
