We hear a lot about the growth in ethanol production but do you know how it gets from the plant to where it needs to be to enter our fuel supply? How about rail car? During our discussion on the infrastructure needs of a Transition To A Bio Economy, we heard from Paul Hammes, Union Pacific Railroad. Of course his focus was on rail infrastructure and as it relates to biofuels. Specifically, he spoke to the different pieces of that supply chain like rail cars, the rail network and unload/load capacity.
He says that the biofuels industry development happened quite quickly and that put some pressure on their network. In particular, it presented challenges at the destination markets for the unloading of ethanol. One of the challenges has been that ethanol is moved in small units and in concentrated areas. He see future challenges as developing rail infrastructure to meet capacity demands and more development at destination terminals.
You can listen to my interview with Paul here: ff-bio-08-hammes.mp3
You can also download the interview using this link (mp3).