Assessment of the Industrial Tomato Processing Water Energy Nexus: A Case Study at a Processing Facility

Increased demand for water and energy and growing recognition of environmental issues motivate awareness of how these resources are used in industry. Industrial tomato processing consumes substantial quantities of both water and energy. To understand how these resources are used in tomato processing and what opportunities exist for improving efficiency, a water energy nexus (WEN) assessment was conducted that accounted for the various ways energy becomes embedded in water during processing by motors, pumps, fans, and boilers. The WEN assessment was conducted at an industrial tomato processing facility that processed 265 metric tonnes of fruit per hour to develop a map of water and associated energy use at each processing step. A total of 1.29 billion kilograms (kg) of water were used for the processing season, with 870 million kg routed to flumes. The analysis identified the thermal energy used to generate steam for the various heat exchangers and evaporators used during processing as the greatest source of embedded energy in process water (778,000 gigajoules per season). The electrical energy embedded in the process water totaled 4.4 million kilowatt-hours per season, over 80% of which was attributed to pumping. Moreover, the data were used to identify opportunities to improve efficiency by adjusting water loads on equipment and developing strategies for water and energy conservation and recovery. The baseline water and energy use data provided by the WEN assessment can enable additional modeling to assess resource efficiency measures and the life cycle impact of processed tomato products.