Solar Boiler for Almond Processing

Abstract

Since June of 2022, Sunvapor has been successfully operating the first solar boiler used for nut processing in the USA. Sunvapor engineered, managed the construction, and commissioned the turnkey solar steam generating facility for California Custom Processing (“CCP”), one of California’s leading almond processors located in Madera, California. CCP takes in raw almonds and performs a range of processes, including pasteurization, that require process steam. CCP was seeking to add steaming capacity to its boiler room, which has three 500 kW_th (the subscript “th” means we are referring to thermal energy) gas boilers in order to raise its daytime production rate. The 2 MW_th solar boiler developed by Sunvapor not only satisfied the need for additional daytime steaming capacity, but in clear sky conditions has supplied 100% of all the plant steam demand - with no greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper we present all phases of the life cycle of this first-of-a-kind solar boiler for nut processing; development, construction, commissioning, and operations.