Sunsweet Growers Inc. (Sunsweet) is the world’s largest processor and marketer of dried fruit and a beverage manufacturer with a contract to manufacture beverages for PepsiCo. Sunsweet is a cooperative, owned by and representing 200 California prune producers and their respective farms. All of Sunsweet’s California prune food processing and a significant portion of its beverage processing is done at its headquarters located in the city limits of Yuba City, California.
To produce these food and beverage products, Sunsweet relies on steam generation to power the equipment necessary for food and beverage processing including rehydrating prunes and heating water for equipment and facility sanitation. Sunsweet was awarded a grant to replace inefficient equipment at its headquarters to modernize the facility and reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Sunsweet installed a new 200 horsepower variable frequency drive air compressor replacing two existing 100 horsepower fixed speed air compressors originally from 1999. Two 47-yearold boilers and 175 steam traps were replaced to improve efficiencies.
Natural gas and electricity consumption were measured for 3 months prior to installing the new equipment and 12 months post-installation. The new air compressors and new boilers reduced annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 4,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
