FREMONT, CALIF.—Power Knot LLC, a market leader for onsite organic waste management solutions, announced that Dubai Creative Group and Power Knot have collaborated with Microsoft Dubai to create the first solar-powered biodigester in the world.
In 2021, the Microsoft Real Estate and Facilities Directorate (RE&F) team in Dubai implemented an exciting initiative: a solar-powered LFC biodigester for their restaurant. Microsoft set clear goals to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030 and purchased the LFC biodigester to help them achieve these goals. The digestate that the machine outputs is used as a plant-organic fertilizer to create an even better office environment.
James Spearman, the UAE Sustainability lead at Microsoft, realized that, “By implementing the biodigester system here in our Dubai office, we’re able to process our food waste locally directly contributing to those three goals and making our office and ultimately, the planet, a more sustainable place to work.”
The LFC Biodigester is a machine that digests food waste. These machines are usually installed in a commercial kitchen and reduce the expense, inconvenience, mess, and carbon footprint of disposing of waste food that would otherwise be hauled to a landfill. Power Knot has ten different sizes that digest from 9 kg (20 lb) per day to 3000 kg (6600 lb) per day of food waste.
“We are committed to operate as efficiently as possible, and we are evolving to address our sustainability needs,” said Sharon McGrath Dawson, FM Country Lead—UA, Oman, and Qatar. “This smart, solar powered machine breaks down food waste and turns it into liquid.”
All LFC biodigesters automatically connect to the LFC Cloud, Power Knot’s continuous data analytics system. The LFC Cloud shows statistics on usage, diagnostics, and service schedules, and can be accessed from any device anywhere in the world without installing an app. The LFC biodigester securely sends data about the operation of the LFC biodigester to the server and that data is retained for five years. All data that is available on the LFC touch screen is sent to the LFC Cloud where a user can easily create reports for stakeholders.
