A new technology has leapt straight from science fiction to reality, allowing human sweat to be turned into clean drinking water.

A machine was exhibited at a recent German soccer tournament which extracts and purifies sweat from clothes, transforming it into clean drinkable water. It was trialled at a soccer tournament as part of UNICEF’S “United for Children” campaign.

The Sweat Machine was built by Engineer Andreas Hammar using HVR Water Purification AB technology developed at the The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr Hammar says: “the technical challenge was to build the sweat machine like in the space travel industry, where every filthy water drop whether it's cooling water, urine or just sweat, is invaluable. It is hard to believe, but the water extracted from the machine is actually cleaner than ordinary Swedish tap water.”

Participants were encouraged to hand in their sweaty clothes and take a sip of clean drinking water gathered from them. Organisers said for once the players were deemed not sweaty enough, saying “people haven't produced as much sweat as we hoped - right now the weather in Gothenburg is lousy. So we've installed exercise bikes alongside the machine and volunteers are cycling like crazy. Even so, the demand for sweat is greater than the supply. And the machine will never be mass produced - there are better solutions out there such as water purifying pills.”

The technology resembles the suits worn by the inhabitants of a desert world in the 1984 film Dune. It seeks to solve a widespread problem, with an estimated 80 percent of disease in developing countries associated with bad water and sanitation.