Samsung Electronics announced that it has completed a project in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in response to the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge. The development of the core technologies for the reinvented toilet prototype began in 2019 with the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT).

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee met with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on August 16th to discuss the outcome of the reinvented toilet project and exchange ideas regarding global social contribution initiatives. During the meeting, Bill Gates shared the philanthropic vision and ongoing initiatives of the Foundation and Vice Chairman Lee expressed his commitment to using Samsung’s technologies to help address the challenges facing humanity.

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Samsung plans to offer royalty-free licenses of patents related to the project to developing countries during the commercialization stage. They will also continue to provide close consultation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help bring technologies to mass production. The two organizations will work together to identify industry partners willing to commercialize the technology, after making the design more efficient for mass production.

How The Samsung ‘Reinvented Toilet’ Prototype Works

SAIT worked on the basic design and developed the component and modular technology leading to the successful development of a prototype for household use. The core technologies developed by Samsung include heat-treatment and bio processing technologies to kill pathogens from human waste and make the released effluent and solids safe for the environment. The system enables the treated water to be fully recycled. Solid waste is dehydrated, dried and combusted into ashes, while liquid waste is treated through a biological purification process. The product is energy efficient with effluent treatment capability.

It also meets the performance required by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for commercialization for a household use reinvented toilet.

The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge is an initiative by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 2011 to develop transformative toilet technologies that can safely and effectively manage human waste.

According to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, about 3.6 billion people are forced to use unsafe sanitation facilities, resulting in half a million children under age 5 dying every year from diarrheal diseases caused by limited access to safe water and hygiene.