By Linda Jarrett
Ethanol will now be free flowing out of the St. Louis region with the opening of Gateway Terminals LLC in Sauget, Ill.
The ethanol distribution center, reported to be $12.5 million, is a joint venture between Eagle Marine Industries and SCF Agri/Fuels LLC, a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc.. SEACOR is a two-thirds partner with Eagle holding a one-third share.
The intermodal facility, employing 14 people, will move ethanol product by barge, rail, and truck from the Midwest facility to all points south, north, east and west.
“The great thing about the Gateway Terminal project is the potential benefit and impact it will have throughout the Midwest region,” says Patrick McKeehan, executive director of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois.
GATEWAY TO EVERYWHERE
The multi-million dollar operation has the capability of holding 500,000 barrels of product, which can then be shipped to areas of the country not having the infrastructure to support such a facility.
“We’re really a transportation facility,” says Chris Allen, vice president of operations for Eagle Marine Industries. “One of the short falls from an infrastructure standpoint in the industry today is that there are not many facilities like ours that are intermodal and that can access water, rail and truck.”
Gateway takes advantage of St. Louis being the third largest rail hub in the country.
“We have built the terminal to hold about 70 cars, “Allen says. “We can turn that around in 24 hours and load it straight out to the barge or any model they want to go to.”
He says that Gateway will also be phasing in the ability of using 100-car unit trains; trains that carry one product from the same origin to the same destination. This method saves costs since they carry only one product, the trains do not have to be assembled and disassembled along the way.
Chet Green, Gateway Terminal manager, says that there are four other operations in the United States that handle unit trains. “And there aren’t many facilities like this positioned on the Mississippi River with the capabilities that we’ll be able to have.”
McKeehan says that Gateway’s deepwater capability positions it well in product movement. “Further north of St. Louis, the depth limits the capacity of the ship as to how much you can load. This port, being south of the lock and dam, allows heavier and greater capacity ships to link to Gateway Terminal.”
This, he says, gives the Terminal not only a national, but international advantage as far as a distributing product.
“We’re looking at the ability to draw in ethanol-related fuel products that are being made across the Midwest,” he says. “Their linkage to existing rail infrastructure, and their ability to tie into the highway network that we have in our region, combine to make this the right choice for this project.”
Besides rail, truck and barge, Gateway hopes to use a fuel pipeline in the future.
“The pipeline piece of our business would probably open another avenue in that we would be able to handle all types of clean products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, or natural gas,” Green says. “We would load it back onto rail cars and they could actually put it on trucks if the customer wanted to blend it.
A NECESSARY THING
When President George Bush signed into the Renewable Fuels Energy Bill in 2007, ethanol production surged making the distribution of the product more imperative. The measure requires that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be used annually by 2022, of which 21 billion gallons must come from advanced biofuels.
As a result, corn production in the Midwest is outpacing the facilities needed to ship ethanol around the country. Getting the product to buyers in other regions is crucial.
Gateway’s size puts it at the forefront of ethanol storage and movement. Most ethanol plants only have the capability of holding product for a day before having to ship it out. If a producer doesn’t have enough product to fill a train or barge, Gateway has the capacity, at 500,000 barrels, to hold it until they can ship it.
“This kind of facility is really needed,” Allen says. “If there’s a weak link in ethanol development today, it’s the fact that there aren’t facilities like ours to serve the producers, so we feel we have a real early mover advantage in a segment of the ethanol market that’s needed.”
Green added that Gateway gives transportation options to producers that they haven’t had before. “Typically, an ethanol plant will have a day’s worth of storage, and then they’ll put the product in rail cars and send it out. However, if the product needs to be held until there’s enough to fill a barge or train, we have the capacity of holding 500,000 barrels. So it can be held a couple of days or a week, until the barge or train can be filled.”
BENEFITS TO OUR REGION
McKeehan says the new facility incorporates two real benefits. “First, it expands our capacity and our position in the ethanol and distribution market and that’s key in alternative industry, which is important for our region.
“Secondly,” he says, “it impacts our ability in the transportation distribution industry because of this additional product transfer point from rail to barge. This provides more capacities within the St. Louis Metropolitan Area and we think this will have long-term benefits.
“As we move into the future with ethanol, biofuels, or other alternative fuels,” McKeehan says. “I think this Gateway terminal will be a leading-edge provider of these transportation services, and an important asset to St. Louis.”
Ronda Sauget, president of Validus Business Strategies in Sauget, says that they were “extremely pleased” to have Gateway as a part of their developing green corridor.
“Gateway will add tremendous value to our green energy initiative by bringing a $12.5 million new deepwater intermodal renewable fuel terminal to this area,” she says. “This terminal will provide a hub for the distribution of renewable fuels to other parts of the nation and internationally. The high speed loading and unload of unit trains access to Explorer pipeline, and multiple interstate highway access corridors makes this new facility strategically located for great future expansion.”
THE PLAYERS
Gateway Terminals LLC is acting as construction manager for the project with Chet Green and operations supervisor Marshal Bockman in charge.
Bockman addressed one of the challenges. “Eagle Industry has six different businesses at this location so we’re building this facility outside of the other businesses,” he says. “So, the infrastructure of the roads has caused some different routing.”
“But,” he adds, “The weather has helped our timeline with giving us a very favorable climate.”
Green says that while there had been challenges; they had assembled a good dedicated team. “I think we have the cream of crop of contractors doing this.”
Contractors involved with Gateway Terminal LLC were:
Progress/Demand Electric - ST. LOUIS, MO
PTC - Pasadena Tank Corporation
- HOUSTON, TX
PMEC - Petroleum Measurement
Equipment Company - HOUSTON, TX
Federal Steel - GRANITE CITY, IL
IronHorse Inc - Railroad Construction& Maintenance - BALDWIN, IL
L. Keeley Construction - SAUGET, IL
Blankenship Construction
- MULBERRY GROVE, IL |
