30 July - 5 August 2012 - orsam

Israeli Company Wins Gates Foundation Grant for Water-Free Toilet
Israel, JERUSALEM — A fine for uncollected dog feces six years ago prompted the founders of
Israeli company Paulee Cleantec to create a solution that is now being used to develop the world‘s
first water-free toilet.
Paulee Cleantec just signed a deal with the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation to take technology
designed for dealing with pet waste and adapt it for the purpose of creating a water-free toilet for 2
billion people in the developing world who do not have access to clean water or sanitation.
―They approached us and asked us to give them a proposal,‖ said Paulee Cleantec CEO Oded
Halperin. ―We were immediately approved.‖
Paulee Cleantec is now using $110,000 USD from the foundation to developing plans for a waterfree
toilet prototype, and if it is successful the foundation will grant another $1.5-2 million USD to
make and commercialize it.
Paulee Cleantec‘s concept is a simple one, said Halperin. It adds a common chemical to fecal waste
that turns it into odorless and sterile ash within 30 seconds. That ash can then be used as a fertilizer
for common crops. Each use costs only a few cents.
Liquid waste is collected and sterilized separately, then used to flush the toilet. The toilet will power
itself using internally generated heat, with a small solar panel installed on each unit as a backup.
A water-free toilet would essentially eradicate the flow of untreated waste into waterways, potentially
preventing many deaths from water-borne disease in the third world.
Paulee Cleantec has patented the concept in the United States and Europe.
Halperin said the company had not considered the full potential of its technology, developed by
Hebrew University professor and Paulee Cleantec co-founder Oded Shoseyov, but the Gates
Foundation‘s approach ―opened his eyes‖.
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