Emerson and AT&T Join Forces to Turn Food Waste into Energy

Grind2Energy. Image courtesy of Emerson.

by | Nov 28, 2018

This article is included in these additional categories:

Grind2Energy. Image courtesy of Emerson.

 

Emerson and AT&T have joined forces to turn the nation’s food waste into clean energy and fertilizer with the help of anaerobic digestion partners.

According to Waste 360, Emerson’s Grind2Energy food waste recycling system is an industrial food grinder that turns food scraps from commercial kitchens into a nutrient-rich slurry. Coupling that technology with AT&T’s IoT connectivity and reporting, the companies have succeeded in increasing the system’s ability to turn food waste into clean energy.

According to the site:

To begin integrating IoT and reporting into Grind2Energy, the companies first discussed the business problem of not being able to handle manual tasks remotely, and then built in effective and efficient features to scale the system in three main ways. The first is improving customer service levels. Via the new features, a customer can call Emerson’s customer service line, and a representative can see the customer’s system to troubleshoot the problem remotely opposed to sending a tech onsite to fix the issue.

So far, both companies have helped 7,400 tons of food waste from landfill, which is slated to produce an estimated 1.3 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity and 420 tons of fertilizer in 2018.

Back in 2015, Sendik’s, a chain of food markets, announced it was installing Grind2Energy waste-to-energy equipment in 11 of its 12 stores and its distribution center in the Milwaukee area.

The program’s pilot, which started in 2014, was conducted in Mequon, WI. That store reduced the amount of waste sent to landfills from eight to one truckload per month. The materials transformed to energy include food scraps, grease from cooking meat and leftover food from the delis that can’t be composted.

 

 

 

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This