JOHANNESBURG--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blume Distillation LLC, the leading provider of appropriate-scale Biorefinery production equipment, announced today the completion of a Joint Development Agreement with eThala BioFuels, an Agro-Processing, Energy and Services company located in Durban, South Africa. The agreement details a plan for the design, development and implementation of a Blume production solution that will convert purpose grown feedstock (PGF) inputs into high-value Agricultural products including Co2 organic soil amendments and renewable liquid replacement fuels for clean cookstoves and small engines such as irrigation pumps and generators for 40cents a liter.
The Biorefinery project is located in Harding, KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa. It was founded by Ms. Nompumelelo (Nomvuzo) Tembe, eThala Director and CEO, Ms. Langalethu (Langa) Mbatha, eThala Director and Co-Founder and Mr. Peter (Jabulani) Mbatha, V.P. Technical Services. “Our Phase One development site is situated on 350 ha,” said CEO Tembe. “The site will host the Blume Biorefinery plant operations and will access a 2,500 ha Agricultural land where sweet sorghum (lmfe) will be grown to produce a wide range of agricultural and job development opportunities from the currently underused Agricultural lands here. We have invested substantial seed funding including much appreciated Government support and are ready to start our engineering work.”
Blume Distillation’s proprietary advanced Agtech equipment will convert sorghum and other readily available surplus crops to a diverse range of high-return end and co-products. “We have been researching and consulting with businesses on the best use of Agricultural lands and conversion solutions for energy and local job development for the last several years,” said Vice President Mbatha. “The area we are concentrating our eThala BioFuels operations on in the KwaZulu-Natal (Umuziwabantu) and Eastern Cape (Mbizana) provinces is rich in natural crop resources, skilled agriculture workers and has a tremendous potential to help meet energy and product demands in local, regional and even international markets. We selected Blume as our strategic technology partner due to its innovative technologies, solutions and expertise and are certain working with them we can optimize existing resources to develop products and programs that benefit communities throughout our region.”
According to David Blume, CEO of Blume Distillation and a globally acknowledged pioneer in advanced regenerative Agricultural technology and BioFuels development, “We are delighted to have teamed with eThala for the purpose of building a biorefinery plant that will help stimulate sustainable economic growth and that will produce organic and natural soil amendments to increase regional land productivity. Better yet, we can do this at far less cost than traditional petro-chemical solutions allow. At Blume we understand and design comprehensive solutions that address the entire project objective. We want to provide a closed-loop process that gives us a truly renewable means to solve social, environmental and economic objectives. The eThala Plant will be a regional milestone and a showcase of Agricultural technology integration and benefit for the region and country.”
“Blume is developing our Phase One Engineering study for eThala’s regional economic and Agricultural redevelopment program,” said Tom Harvey, V.P. of Blume Distillation. “Working together we will implement a Bioethanol operation that will ultimately be able to cost-effectively produce 160,000,000 Liters per year (45million gallons) of bioethanol. This 99.5% anhydrous alcohol is suited for foreign energy markets and applications including clean indoor cooking, non-electrical refrigeration, powering Ag and water pumps and producing pharmaceutical grade alcohol.”
Phase One of the eThala project will produce 19MMLY (5,000,000 gallons) of bioethanol and will include an electrical co-generation plant to power the operation. The project will ultimately utilize thousands of hectares of underused Agricultural land and employ hundreds of people.
“David Blume is the author of Alcohol Can Be A Gas! He has worked with farming communities all over the globe on regenerative agriculture and habitat restoration projects that integrate with food and fuel production,” Mbatha continued. “He provides an encyclopedic overview of how we can end energy poverty, implement truly sustainable community development and utilize a close-loop no waste system to optimize purpose grown crops to produce abundant food and job benefits on a local basis. Our project is a game-changer for our region and will be a showcase for the world that we can produce abundant fuel and human food efficiently and renewably.”
About eThala BioFuels
eThala is a Technical Management, Energy and Services company, located in Durban South Africa. eThala promotes solutions to local economic development, food and energy issues throughout Eastern South Africa. Its primary focus is Food and Energy security whilst promoting South African blacks participation in mainstream economy, by exposing them to Skills and Business opportunities.
This approach addresses social and economic issues in rural areas, and reduces poverty, unemployment and food shortage concerns. For more information, contact: Peter Jabulani Mbatha V.P. eThala BioFuels, jabulani.mtn@gmail.com, +2783 760 2900
About Blume Distillation LLC
Blume Distillation LLC is a leading provider of world-class, appropriate-scale biorefinery/liquid replacement fuel solutions produced from a diversity of available waste and surplus carbohydrate-based resources. The company has initial system sales in South Africa and is a technology partner of the United Nations’ Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. Blume systems are suited to rapid deployment in a wide variety of commercial and geographic settings. They are designed to produce fuel and high-value alcohol based end and co-products at costs comparable to or lower than large-scale producers. Blume is focused on solutions that address life-critical applications including transportation, clean indoor cooking, electricity generation and non-electrical refrigeration. For information visit BlumeDistillation.com or contact Tom Harvey, Blume Distillation, + 01 (530) 249-2484, tharvey@blumedistillation.com