The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is considering a global roll-out of its Omni Processor (OP) faecal sludge system after completing the commissioning of the first full-scale version in Senegal. The $2 million system was developed to transform faecal sludge into ash, distilled water and electricity. The Foundation now plans to subsidise its O&M until the end of the year to fine-tune its performance and business model before it can be deployed globally. "I think we know 90% of what we need to know about the OP," said Mansour Fall, operations director at Delvic, the Senegalese company that is operating the system along with 11 other faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs) across the country. The system is located at the Tivaouane Peulh FSTP on the outskirts of Dakar, and was donated by the Foundation to the national sanitation utility Office National de l'Assainissement (ONAS). Because it is much bigger than the initial pilot system, the Foundation is keen to help Delvic explore the best operating conditions. For the first few months of operation, the baseline performance will be established with dried human faecal sludge from the FSTP as the primary input, at different throughput rates and operating modes (continuous running vs. daily start-and-stops). The unit will then be co-fired with solid waste (paper, cardboard, organic waste), which significantly boosts the unit's electricity production.
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