US Ethanol Infrastructure

The limitless potential of scientists and engineers in the biofuels community to develop the technologies necessary to produce large volumes of ethanol and other biofuels from a wide range of feedstocks is awe-inspiring. The amount of intellectual capital being put to work improving efficiencies, developing new processes and perfecting today’s technologies far exceeds the financial capital that is supporting the rapid evolution of the industry.

While this is a critical component to the advance of biofuels across the globe, so too is the investment in the infrastructure necessary to deliver product to the marketplace. In the United States, with an accelerated commitment to biofuels now law, those investments are being made and growth of ethanol as major component of our nation’s motor fuel supply is under way.

In major fuel markets all across the country – from Los Angeles to Houston to Atlanta, Washington, D.C, New York City and Boston – ethanol receiving, storage and blending infrastructure is rapidly under development. Terminals are in operation or under construction today that can handle unit trains of ethanol – trains consisting of nothing but tanker cars full of ethanol – with increased efficiency. One such terminal located in Baltimore, Maryland, will soon be able to unload 20 cars of ethanol, each containing 30,000 gallons, every three hours.

Unit trains are fast becoming the preferred mode of transportation as they can move the same volume of ethanol that would be moved as a pipeline shipment faster and more efficiently. A unit train of ethanol originating in the Midwest can service either the East or West Coasts in approximately 4 days. That is far faster than traveling at 3 miles per hour through America’s pipeline system.

In addition to increases in train and barge unloading capacity, gasoline terminals all across the country are adding storage capacity or dedicating existing storage capacity to ethanol. In markets like Florida, gasoline terminals are turning over storage space to ethanol to allow for increased ethanol blending in one of the largest markets in the United States. This pattern is being repeated all across the country as new markets open to ethanol blending.

Ethanol producers are also taking the initiative to improve their ability to transport product to the market. Today, many ethanol biorefineries have or are installing the rail track capacity to load unit trains of ethanol bound for large markets across the country. It is becoming quite common for ethanol facilities to have five miles or more of rail tracks to receive corn and deliver ethanol and distiller’s grains to the markets that need them.

For those facilities without unit train capacity, solutions are quickly being developed. In Manly, Iowa, a terminaling facility has been constructed that combines ethanol from surrounding biorefineries, pooling the ethanol and making it ready for unit train shipments. The facility then organizes loads and sends out the unit trains.

While train shipments are the preferred method of transportation, representing some two-thirds of all ethanol shipped in the U.S., increased utilization of tanker truck and barge traffic is also occurring. And, with an eye toward ethanol production and use five times greater than seen today, the necessary research is being conducted on the feasibility of an ethanol-dedicated pipeline.

Building the kind of ethanol and biofuels industry in the United States that will be required to help achieve our energy, economic and environmental goals must be comprehensive. It will take the continued cooperation of biofuels producers, train, truck and barge transporters, and the gasoline and oil industry to ensure success. The good news is that the process is already well under way.