Bill Gates has turned his philanthropic sights to cleaner energy solutions in developing countries and his current pet project is a new waste-to-fuel facility in Accra, Ghana.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is calling it a “Next-Generation Urban Sanitation Facility,” but we know that behind that impressive title, it’s really just human feces being turned into usable fuel.
The facility is being funded by a $1.5 million grant from the foundation and is being developed by Columbia University professor Kartik Chandran, Waste Enterprises and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.  It will process waste sludge into two energy sources:  biodiesel and methane.
While a cheap source of fuel will be of great benefit to the area, the possibly even greater benefit is that it will also keep human waste out of the local water supply, meaning less water-borne illnesses and a better quality of life for the local people.
via Fast Company
(Source: www.ecogeek.org )