In 2019, the California Energy Commission awarded Pacific Coast Producers (PCP), the largest tomato canning facility in the country, a $5,721,713 grant from the Food Production Investment Program (FPIP) under the state’s California Climate Investments program to install an advanced energy-efficiency evaporation technology at PCP’s Woodland facility. The grant was supplemented by $3,080,923 in match funding from PCP.
California processes over 10 million tons of tomatoes annually and produces approximately 95 percent of processed tomato products in the U.S. Common tomato products include peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Processing tomatoes into tomato products is an energy-intensive process requiring large amounts of heat, commonly provided by burning fossil gas. Tomatoes are approximately 95 percent water and 5 percent solids and sugars. Converting tomato juice to tomato paste requires evaporating over 80 percent of the water content, and this is done through evaporators. The heat from the steam causes water to evaporate from the tomato juice, thereby thickening it. In early 2020, despite significant challenges due to ongoing supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, PCP installed and commissioned an advanced multi-effect evaporator system with mechanical vapor recompression technology. This system enabled PCP to take waste steam and recompress it, raising the pressure and temperature and allowing the steam to be recycled back into the process—significantly reducing fossil gas and water consumption.
This project would not have happened without the CEC grant. The grant brought down the cost of the technology, enabling it to meet PCP’s internal financial requirements. In PCP’s 2021 tomato processing season, during which it operates nonstop between July and October, the evaporator system upgrade was measured to annually save approximately 1.6 million therms of fossil gas, more than 70,000 kilowatt-hours, and over $1 million annually. Together, these reductions in energy use avoid over 8,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually and improve the air quality in a heavily populated area.
“As an essential member of the food and agricultural industry in California, [PCP] has been fortunate to participate in the [Food Production Investment Program], commonly known as FPIP,” said Erick Watkins, Director of Engineering at PCP. He also said, “PCP has participated in several grants, which has allowed us to significantly increase our energy and processing efficiency in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We have used the program to increase our energy intensity, create our own electricity onsite, and redesign some of our processes so that they use less energy. We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to become more sustainable and work toward the shared goal of reducing our carbon footprint.”