Ravenna, NE

Customer
Abengoa Bioenergy

RailWorks Business Unit
RailWorks Track Systems, Inc.

Description
RailWorks worked directly with Abengoa Bioenergy and design-builder FruCon-Austin to construct a double-loop track to service the new ethanol plant.

Scope
Once the conceptual design was prepared, RailWorks surveyed the proposed site and worked closely with the BNSF, the servicing railroad, to ensure the track specification met the approval of all parties involved. RailWorks constructed a 15,000-foot double-loop track with nine turnouts. The new track infrastructure accommodates two unit trains simultaneously to ensure continuous bioethanol production.

Unique features
The plant produces 88 million gallons of ethanol per year from 32 million bushels of local corn, making it the largest dry mill ethanol plant in Nebraska. In addition to ethanol, the facility produces approximately 150,000 tons of distillers dried grains with solubles (“DDGS”) and 350,000 tons of wet distillers grains with solubles (“WDGS”), co-products of the corn-to-ethanol processing.

Other participants
FruCon-Austin Joint Venture (design builder)
BNSF, the servicing railroad