Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Charles E Wilson

“Today, there are about 53 plants within a 200-mile radius of Manly producing about 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol, or about a third of the total US production capacity,” says Kiewiet, who serves as president of Manly Terminal LLC. “It is estimated that more than half of all US ethanol production will be within 300 miles of the Manly terminal by the end of 2009, making this location the common origin point for the country's ethanol marketing and distribution.

“This terminal will be a great benefit to a large number of those plants that lack rail access or are served by just a single rail carrier. Our relationship with Iowa Northern Railway gives us access to virtually all of the Class I railroads, and we are able to develop very competitive pricing. We can make sure that our ethanol customers are getting the lowest possible rate to the best possible markets.

“We're also working with the Chicago Board of Trade to classify Manly as a delivery point for ethanol. That way traders can clear contracts through Manly rather than Argo, Illinois, which would let them save on freight costs.”

The terminal will handle inbound as well as outbound rail shipments. While ethanol will be the primary outbound cargo, inbound shipments will include methanol, denaturant, caustic soda, and sulfuric acid.

“Inbound shipments will include chemicals used in ethanol and biodiesel production,” says Brad Sabin, Manly Terminal project manager. “We're also talking with potential customers about various ag products, such as herbicides. We may also handle some diesel shipments during the spring and fall.”

Manly was once a large railroad town on the Rock Island line. Still in place are 12 sections of track dating back to the Rock Island days, and that rail infrastructure added to the attractiveness of the location.

The Manly Terminal site on the north side of the town lies next to the main line used by the Iowa Northern Railway. About four miles of track is in place, and all of it is 115-lb-capacity continuous rail on steel ties for long life and low maintenance.

Railcar rack

Current rail infrastructure includes a covered loading rack with room for 14 rail tankcars. The top-load rack was outfitted with galvanized steel work platform with aluminum drop-down safety cages from Safe Harbor Access Systems, OPW loading arms, Toptech Systems MultiLoad controllers, and Civacon's grounding system. Spill containment is provided by galvanized spill pans under the railcars.

Ultimately, the terminal will have enough trackage for about 1200 railcars, according to Sabin. Approximately 50 carspots will be available for transloading. Portable spill pans from Safe Rack will be used in the transloading area.

The facility opened with a single three-million-gallon ethanol storage tank and two one-million-gallon denaturant storage tanks. Work began in March on two five-million-gallon ethanol storage tanks.

That's just the beginning. “We plan to have at least four storage tanks (totaling 18 million gallons) for co-mingled ethanol shipments, but we are more than willing to add dedicated customer tanks,” Sabin says. “We also plan to add tankage for other products starting later this year. This site can accommodate approximately 70 million gallons of storage.”

Manly Terminal selected A&B Welding to erect the storage tanks, and the work was done according to the American Petroleum Institute's 650 standard. The walls of the internal-floating-roof tanks are half-inch carbon steel plate. Each tank sits on a six-foot-thick rock base topped with a layer of sand.

Truck rack

Product for the ethanol storage tank arrives by tank trailer and is offloaded at a four-bay truck rack that was designed for expansion to eight bays. Blackmer pumps rated at 500 gallons per minute speed the ethanol transfer process. Other rack hardware includes Toptech Systems Multiload controllers that track customer inventory, Smith Meter metering, and OPW unloading couplers.

A Toledo-Mueller digital scale interfaces with the Toptech rack system and provides a certified weight ticket. Other terminal services include a fully outfitted laboratory for collecting and analyzing the products handled at the terminal. A boiler supplies plenty of steam for heating cargoes, such as caustic soda that is used in ethanol production.

LB Transport LLC, which is owned by the Kiewiet family, hauls a majority of inbound ethanol loads. KAG Logistics Group will arrange transport for loads not handled by LB Transport, according to Woodie McDuffie, KAG Ethanol Logistics vice-president.

Outbound shipments of ethanol are all by unit trains consisting of 75 to 100 tankcars. “By the end of this year, we'll be dispatching a unit train every other day,” McDuffie says. “The frequency will continue to increase in 2009 and beyond.”

Most of those trains will be headed eastward toward Chicago, Illinois, and points beyond. Initial ethanol shipments were to Albany, New York, and some ethanol unit trains have been sent to Texas. KAG Ethanol Logistics will begin serving points in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.

“We're ramping up as quickly as we can to meet the growing demand for ethanol,” McDuffie says. “One of the biggest problems we face is a lack of adequate delivery infrastructure. We don't have enough transloading capacity — especially in the northeast — that can handle ethanol. Many petroleum terminals still lack ethanol injection equipment.”

However, McDuffie stresses that KAG Ethanol Logistics is working hard to address the issues, and the operation is progressing steadily. McDuffie makes it clear that the destination issues will be resolved.

Once the ethanol shipments arrive at a transloading site, KAG Ethanol Logistics coordinates deliveries to petroleum terminals and other end users. The fleets under contract to KAG Ethanol Logistics are getting busier by the day.

Nash says: “This is just the beginning of a massive increase in renewable fuels, and we want KAG and its partners to be a big part of it.”

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