熱心于公益事業的比爾·蓋茨這些年在環保馬桶上沒少花錢。自從蓋茨基金會于2011年發起了“改造馬桶挑戰”後，已有多個機構參與過這一挑戰。近日三星研發出一款無需用水并能把便便燒成灰的馬桶，既環保又節能，有望投入大規模生産。

Part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative to transform toilet technologies, Samsung has been working on the technology for three years. Credit: Samsung

For over a decade, Bill Gates has had a distinct focus on toilets. As part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge launched in 2011, part of an effort to transform toilet technologies to manage human waste safely and effectively for the billions of people using unsafe sanitation facilities across the globe.

十多年來，比爾·蓋茨對馬桶一直情有獨鐘。比爾及梅琳達·蓋茨基金會于2011年發起了“改造馬桶挑戰”，目的是通過改革馬桶技術為全球數十億使用不安全衛生設施的人安全有效地處理糞便。

The latest project in this challenge comes from Samsung, which created a toilet that uses no water and can turn human waste into ashes.

參與這一挑戰的最新馬桶由三星研發，無需用水還能将人類糞便化成灰。

Born out of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the research and development arm of Samsung Electronics, the team presented the finished core technologies and a “successfully developed and tested prototype,” to Gates as part of a partnership between the two groups, according to a Samsung press release.

據三星的新聞稿稱，三星電子的研發機構三星綜合技術院團隊将已完成的核心技術和“成功研發并經過測試的馬桶原型”交給了合作方比爾·蓋茨。

The three years of research and development from Samsung led to a prototype good for household use and the development of components and modular technology with the goal of easy commercialization.

三星花了三年時間研發出的這款原型産品不僅适合家庭使用，而且組件和模塊化技術也便于投入商業化生産。

Core Samsung technologies include heat treatment and bioprocessing to kill pathogens from human waste and make the released effluent and solids safe for the environment. The toilet 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.

三星的這些核心技術包括殺死人類糞便中病原菌并将排洩物進行環保處理的熱處理和生物工藝。有了這一馬桶系統，經過處理的廢水便可以完全回收利用。固态糞便經過脫水、幹燥後燃成灰，而液态糞便則進行生物淨化處理。

Samsung plans to offer royalty-free licenses of patents related to the project to developing countries during the commercialization stage and will work with the foundation to bring the technology to mass production.

三星計劃在商業化階段向發展中國家提供該馬桶項目的免版稅的專利許可，并将與蓋茨基金會合作将這一技術投入大批量生産。

Dubbed as energy efficient, the toilet requires no water, serving as a bonus for use in remote areas, the same places where the nitrogen and micro-pollutants from human waste can prove dangerous to the environment and people that encounter it.

這款号稱很節能的馬桶不需要水，非常适合在偏遠地區使用，也正是在這些地方，人類糞便中的氮和微污染物會危害到環境和接觸到糞便的人。

The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge has remained on a steady course since its inception in 2011, including hosting Reinvented Toilet Expo events over the years. “There are 4.5 billion people in the world without access to adequate sanitation systems,” Doulaye Koné, Gates Foundation deputy director of water, sanitation, and health, says in a past statement. “We need new science and new engineering to solve the problem.”

自從2011年發起“改造馬桶挑戰”後，這一活動一直在正軌上，這些年還舉辦過多屆改造馬桶博覽會。蓋茨基金會的水、衛生和健康部副主任杜拉葉·科内曾在一份聲明中說道：“世界上有45億人沒有像樣的衛生系統可用，我們需要新科學和新工程來解決這一問題。”

英文來源：Popular Mechanics

翻譯&編輯：丹妮

來源：中國日報網

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