Blume Distillation Sells First African-Based Commercial Production, Advanced AgTech, Biorefinery Plant to Numbitrax LLC, for Production of Biofuel From Waste, Native and Cultivated Energy Feedstocks

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.

Blume Distillation LLC, the leading provider of appropriate-scale biorefinery systems for the production of bioethanol and related high value alcohol-based end and co-products, announced today sale of its first African-based Biorefinery. Numbitrax LLC, based in Touwsriver, Western Cape, South Africa, has completed a purchase agreement and fund transfer for a Blume Biorefinery system. The purchase represents a several million-dollar investment for Numbitrax, which plans to produce alcohol fuel (bioethanol) as well as additional high-return offtake products, derived from local and readily available resources.

Funded by Numbitrax and its private investment partners, the project will feature Blume’s advanced AgTech solutions including regenerative agriculture methodologies to help produce low-cost, near-zero emission alcohol fuel from diverse waste, wild-harvest and cultivated carbohydrate-rich feedstocks.

“Leveraging Blume innovations and technology, Numbitrax has a unique opportunity to produce renewable long-term drop-in replacement fuel for farming equipment, energy and transportation needs in the Western Cape region,” said Thomas Gough, CEO of Numbitrax LLC. “We are designing and building a world-class facility that will be a powerful economic engine for our enterprises and will serve as a showcase for how we can make much better use of the resources (waste and cultivated) we have through-out our area.”

Along with his new commercial enterprise, Numbitrax LLC, Gough and his partners founded and run Rangers Reserve (a world-leading survival craft and anti-poaching training facility) located in Touwsriver, Western Cape, South Africa. Situated on 3,000 acres, Rangers Reserve is a center for tracking, anti-poaching and survival skill development. The facility is part of the Fynbos wilderness and is home to diverse range of wildlife and vegetation, including hundreds of different succulents and many unique types of indigenous Protea.

“Our first African plant implementation is a comprehensive demonstration of the economic, environmental and social benefits made possible by our solutions,” said David Blume, CEO of Blume Distillation. “The Numbitrax project calls on Blume Distillation’s diverse expertise in AgTech, energy development, advanced water management, soil and habitat restoration. It also gives us an important opportunity to introduce alcohol-fueled, clean cookstove programs to help stop area deforestation caused by the need for basic cooking resources. Working with Mr. Gough and the Numbitrax team, we will be implementing programs to support community energy independence and to provide advanced Ag methods for producing food, fuel and soil amendments. In addition to fuel our systems produce natural fertilizer that will help restore native habitat and increase farmland productivity.”

Blume Distillation provides practical and lucrative business opportunities that are driven by the better use of wild-harvested and cultivated resources as well as the ability to repurpose common carbohydrate-based wastes. “Blume has an experienced management team, proven AgTech solutions, and a comprehensive understanding of how we can implement our plans in a staged approach that will enable us to add on products and market channels as we optimize our processes and operations,” Gough continued.

“We provide customized appropriate-scale solutions that leverage our proprietary equipment and processes to repurpose surplus and underutilized carbohydrate, starch and sugar-rich resources, often considered waste,” said Tom Harvey, Vice President of Blume Distillation. “We are able to cost-effectively and sustainably transform those feedstock resources into high-return competitively priced alcohol-based end- and co-products. With regional grid electricity costing as much as $1 a kilowatt the area needs better and renewable energy alternatives and we are able to meet those needs with a variety of solutions that are driven by our processes and offtakes.”

Blume Distillation is engaged in the design and development of turnkey appropriate-scale biorefinery equipment. The company’s current commercial systems produce from 500,000 to 10million gallons of bioethanol or alcohol-based products per year. “Our solutions are suited to a diversity of industries including; food processing, juice and soda production, commercial agriculture, and we offer significant benefits for commercial landfill operations,” Blume added. “Our unique front and back-end operational process flexibility provides significant risk mitigation for our customers who are no longer dependent on one type of feedstock being available or one type of products being in demand. This flexibility helps assure our clients are able to recover their CAPEX, return on investment in three years or less.”

About Numbitrax LLC:

Numbitrax is a private partnership corporation founded to provide a renewable supply of waste-based bioethanol fuel in Western Cape, South Africa. Using regenerative agriculture methodology and employing advanced AgTech equipment and solutions, the company will grow it’s own non-food source feedstocks to produce near zero-emission, low-cost bioethanol (alcohol fuel) and related high-return products. Using land at Rangers Reserve, a Nature Reserve approximately two hours outside of Cape Town, South Africa and contracting with neighboring growers to provide feedstocks for the plant operations Numbitrax plant operations commence in 2016. The plant is anticipated to be located at the Reserve where fuel and alcohol-based coproducts will be produced from cultivated, wild-harvest and carbohydrate-rich waste feedstocks. The company anticipates employing and training local residents for food processing and fuel production opportunities. Additionally, the Numbitrax project will generate local jobs as well as a reliable fuel supply for life-critical applications including; safe and clean indoor cooking, heating, non-electrical refrigeration, electrical generation as well as for transportation needs.

About Blume Distillation LLC

Blume Distillation LLC is focused on designing and developing world class, appropriate-scale biorefinery systems that will produce alcohol products including bioethanol fuel from a diversity of locally available feedstock resources. Blume Distillation systems are suited to rapid deployment in a wide variety of commercial and geographic settings. The systems are designed to produce fuel at costs comparable to, or lower than large-scale systems. Blume Distillation LLC has Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS Ratings & Analytics) certification, is a member of the UN’s Global Alliance for Clean Cookstove (GACC) Technology Partnership and is active in ACORE’s Renewable Energy for Latin America and the Caribbean (RELAC) as well as USDA/ARS Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA). For more information, visit www.blumedistillation.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150722005032/en/

Media Contact:
Blume Distillation LLC
Tom Harvey, + 01 (831) 722-1012 x105
Vice President
tharvey@blumedistillation.com