Builders who broke ground for an ethanol distribution center in northern Iowa say there are fourteen ethanol plants within 100 miles of the Manly Terminal. Owners say they hope the first-of-its-kind “truck-to-train” biofuels trading and distribution center someday becomes the crossroads of the renewable energy industry.
Trains will carry the bio-fuels on the Iowa Northern Railway, and its owner Dan Sabin says Congress has approved money to update their 163 miles of line that connects Manly with Cedar Rapids. Sabin noted the Iowa Northern’s won a federal grant of more than 25-million dollars to upgrade its line, part of a federal economic-development drive for rural areas that includes rebuilding infrastructure of short-line railroads.
Builders say the 100-acre facility of the Manly Terminal will be able to store over 20 million gallons of liquid. Manly Terminal President Lee Kiewiet says the facility will consolidate product from several producers and ship it out on “unit trains” of 75 to 100 cars. Kiewiet says every day they’ll transfer some four-point-four-million gallons a day, transferring fuel brought in from producers and refiners between trucks, storage tanks, and trains.
Kiewet says industry leaders think someday that the Manly Terminal could be the center of the biofuels industry, creating a number of jobs for the area. He says there’s also “a buzz around the industry” that the Manly Terminal could become the epicenter of the bio-fuels industry. Kiewiet says a company called Central BioFuels has purchased an option on 85 acres north of the terminal and he says it’s a sign that there will be more jobs there not just in shipping but in other parts of the industry, “almost immediately.”
Sharon Tahtinen of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the Manly Terminal will be a key to making Iowa the renewable energy capital of the world. Tahtinen says the Manly terminal is another step in fully developing the bio-fuels marketplace. “Obviously we know how to make ethanol,” she says. Tahtinen says you still have to be able to transport it out in a cost-effective way. She praised the Manly terminal project and its partners, calling it “an important next step.” Developers expect the Manly Terminal to be operational by April.