Blume Distillation and Thomro Investments Ltd. Announce Joint MOU to Implement a Comprehensive Integrated Crop and Waste to Fuel Solution in Zambia

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.

Blume Distillation LLC, the leading provider of appropriate-scale Biorefinery Liquid Replacement Fuel (LRF) production equipment, announced today the completion of a Joint Memorandum of Understanding with Thomro Investments Ltd. of Lusaka, Zambia. The agreement details a plan for the design, development and implementation of a Blume production solution that will convert waste and cultivated feedstock inputs into LRF and high-value Agricultural co-products including Co2 and organic soil amendments.

The project, located in Chipili District in Luapula, Zambia, was conceived by Thomro CEO and Founder Professor Thomson Sinkala and leverages Blume’s proprietary advanced Agtech equipment to transform standard farm and native crops and associated production waste to a diverse range of high-return end and co-products. “I have been focused on alternative solutions for a number of years,” said Professor Sinkala. “Zambia is in need of innovative technologies that can help us better utilize existing resources to develop energy programs that benefit communities all over the country with low-cost, renewable and clean liquid replacement fuels. David Blume has been a pioneer in this technology for years and I am delighted to have teamed with his company for the purpose of building a biorefinery plant to help produce clean energy resources, expand local employment opportunities and to help reduce our dependence on toxic fossil fuels.”

Working with Thomro Investments, Blume has designed a plan that will help provide increased benefits from Thomro Cassava plantation interests in the Mansa district of Zambia. The project will provide significant local and regional fuel availability, in addition to energy, food, employment and environmental benefits.

“Teaming with Blume Distillation, Thomro will ultimately be able to cost-effectively produce 9,463,530 liters per year (2.5 million gallons) of LRF products for applications including clean indoor cooking, refrigeration, powering Ag and water pumps and producing micro grid electrical generation,” said David Blume, CEO of Blume Distillation. “Our initial Phase One implementation will include a 1MW electrical co-generation plant as a proof of the operation model.”

David Blume is a globally renowned expert in regenerative agriculture and appropriate-scale biofuel production. His critically acclaimed book Alcohol Can Be A Gas! 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 food, wastes and underused assets to produce abundant food, fuel and job benefits on a local basis.

“With the rising recognition of the risks associated with continued fossil fuel use, including the economic and environmental impacts of their extraction, production and use, we are seeing an ever-expanding interest in our world-class Waste to Fuel solutions,” Blume continued. “Our economically produced liquid replacement fuels can satisfy the growing worldwide energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions, producing abundant food, livestock feed, organic fertilizer and soil amendments, fiber-based building materials, and non-exportable jobs.”

“We are engaged in a number of waste-to-fuel projects in the US, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and other emerging markets,” said Tom Harvey, Vice President of Blume Distillation. “Working with our NGO partners such as Project Gaia we are demonstrating how life-critical applications including clean in-door cooking and non-electrical generation can be efficiently powered by locally produced, low-cost and renewable LRFs.”

According to Professor Sinkala, “The Blume systems incorporate unique technology and proven processes that convert surplus and underused carbohydrate, starch and sugar-rich resources to produce fuel as well as to generate high-value coproducts. We can employ these coproducts immediately in the farm system or productize them for resale markets to help replace costly petro-chemicals that comprise a large portion of farm management overheads. Additionally, we are quite interested in addressing the transport fuel market. To that end, Thomro is in discussions with the Industrial Development Corporation to partner on the project and we have already been granted preliminary support by Musika.”

Blume and Thomro will be featured in a private invitation presentation hosted at the US Consulate on Friday, November 20th, 2015, and will be meeting with National political, business, financial and community leaders over the next several days, discussing the benefits of the project plan for local and national interests.

Blume and its sister not-for-profit company the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture are technology partner in the United Nations’ Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) and are helping solve one of the most pressing economic, social and environmental challenges of our time; the need for localized, renewable and clean energy.

About Thomro Investments Ltd.

Thomro Investments Limited is among the few pioneer companies in Zambia promoting and engaging in the development of the biofuels industry in Zambia. Our initial focus is bioethanol production from cassava. In our development philosophy, we stand for total ownership of concept and technology, while at the same time mutually sharing knowledge and experience with partners and stakeholders in the industry. We also offer consultancy services and training in order to improve the performance of operations in the industry. As most of our activities are based in rural areas, the effect of our work is reduction of poverty, unemployment, incidence of aids, and illiteracy. We also aim to introduce e-based services including eLearning, eCommerce, and eHealth to improve the standard of living in the areas where we have our presence. For more information visit www.thomrobiofuels.com

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 coproducts 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

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Blume Distillation LLC
Tom Harvey, + 01 (530) 249-2484
VP
tharvey@blumedistillation.com