Glacial Lakes Energy LLC in Watertown, South Dakota, added a four-track rail loop earlier this year, allowing the switch from manifest shipments to unit trains. The loop can accommodate four full unit trains and, in partnership with a new double loadout station and additional storage, the upgrades are enabling massive efficiency gains at the 60 MMgy plant. "This now allows us to ship all of our ethanol and DDGS by unit train, gaining more lucrative access to export markets and other markets only accepting products supplied by unit train deliveries," says Pat Ho-gan, Glacial Lakes Energy's director of operations. "Before we did the rail, we had a small ladder track system, a single loadout and we shipped all of our ethanol rail cars as manifest shipments, which means they went out in blocks of five, 10, 20 cars at a time."
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