WATSONVILLE — Alcohol fuel could power county residents’ vehicles, farm equipment and more with the fuel plants Blume Distillation plans to build.
Biofuel tech company Blume Distillation LLC held an open house Thursday night to celebrate reaching a funding goal. City of Watsonville staff, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez and other community leaders spoke at the event. Nearly 100 people attended.
Blume Distillation, at 371 Calabasas Road in Watsonville, manufactures and operates biorefinery equipment that converts waste materials, surplus foods and crops — and more — into alcohol fuel, or bioethanol.
“Waste is an underused asset,” said Tom Harvey, vice president of Blume Distillation.
The company was founded in 2009 by CEO David Blume and has six employees. Blume Distillation is owned by 98 investors and is a co-tenant of the property, sharing it with Whiskey Hill Farms, a 14-acre organic farm in Watsonville.
Blume Distillation has a research plant on site where it converts waste and excess material to alcohol. The plant uses material from crops and other sources, such as strawberries and apples, and processes them in a way that separates the alcohol from the rest of the material.
The material goes through a series of tanks and columns, where it first goes through a three-day fermentation process. In fermentation, the alcohol proof reaches about 12%, similar to wine, according to Harvey. The alcohol is sent to a distillation column, where the water and alcohol separates at 172 degrees Fahrenheit. Water and alcohol continue to separate in an adsorber column.
After distillation, water waste is transferred into a methane digester, a device that “digests” the waste, producing methane gas and water that goes through a multi-step process to become irrigation-grade water, according to Harvey.
An organic greenhouse at Whiskey Hill Farms in Watsonville can use CO2 produced by Blume Distillation’s alcohol fuel research plant. The plant can provide CO2, electricity and nutrient-rich and hot water to the greenhouse.The final result is 200 proof, or 100% alcohol. It is stored in a tank and can be used in greenhouses at Whiskey Hill Farms. The tank has a reservoir underneath it in case it ruptures.
Three gallons of water make one gallon of bioethanol, according to Harvey.
“It’s the repurposing of a material for an optimum benefit,” Harvey said.
Blume Distillation is raising funds to design and build bioethanol plants. The company has raised $900,000 and still needs to raise $600,000 to trigger a loan from the Santa Cruz County Bank, according to Blume. He expects to receive final funding from other investors by January, and then the bank will issue its $8.5 million loan, he said.
With this funding, Blume Distillation will build the Monterey Bay Renewable Fuels No. 1, the first alcohol fuel plant in Watsonville, Blume said. The plant will be able to hold and produce 500,000 gallons of organic bioethanol, he said, which will ultimately be used for organic beverages, cosmetics and organic pharmaceutical products.
Blume expects to build a second plant next year that can produce up to 5 million gallons of pharmaceutical, food and fuel bioethanol. This plant will be dedicated to fueling residents’ vehicles, generators, farm equipment, school buses for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, as well as the city of Watsonville municipal fleet, according to Blume. The bioethanol will cost up to $1 a gallon less than gasoline or diesel, he said.
Bioethanol has multiple benefits, according to Blume. It transforms waste and excess materials into energy. It also creates jobs because employees are needed to provide material and for processing.
Bioethanol also has a cleaner burn than gasoline, according to Blume. When used in cars, it also burns cooler and reduces the abrasive waste from gasoline. Bioethanol is 99% free of greenhouse gas and toxic emissions and can be used to operate machinery such as non-electric refrigerators, irrigation pumps, electrical generator motors, lighting and transportation, according to Blume Distillation.
Blume Distillation is in the process of obtaining 15 patents and licenses, according to Harvey. Blume Distillation also hopes to partner with the cannabis and hemp industries in the future, he said.
For more information, visit blumedistillation.com.
