Tôle Inox Inc. is a Quebec company that manufactures stainless steel equipment, including evaporators. The company specializes in the maple production sector and has extensive expertise in stainless steel assembly and welding. Tôle Inox presents itself as a manufacturer of stainless steel equipment with advanced technologies for maple operations.
To turn an ambitious idea into an innovative energy solution, Tôle Inox chose to work with Novika for its expertise in heat transfer, thermodynamics, automation, and control.
The idea was born in the classroom. Michel Bochud, a physicist and professor at Cégep de La Pocatière, told his student David Bédard, who would later join the team at Tôle Inox, that a large share of the energy produced by maple evaporators was being lost as steam. This represented a major energy loss, even as maple producers faced high energy costs to boil maple sap.
The idea became an innovation through the work of Novika’s team, in collaboration with Mr. Bochud. After five years of research and development, ECOVAP was born: a fully electric semi closed evaporator that consumes 15 to 20 times less energy than traditional models. This system recovers the steam released during the boiling process and converts it back into liquid water, capturing the energy released during the phase change and eliminating the need for fossil fuels such as wood or heating oil. Tôle Inox’s ECOVAP materials describe it as an evaporator that recovers the energy contained in steam, operates only on electricity, and avoids combustion of oil, wood, or pellets.
ECOVAP is also automated, making it easier to produce higher quality syrup with fewer risks and optimal control of cooking parameters. Tôle Inox also states that ECOVAP offers full automation, strong process stability, and very low energy consumption per gallon of syrup produced.
This represents a major environmental advancement in the maple syrup industry, allowing producers to reduce their energy costs while lowering their carbon footprint.
