Remaining On Track: Rail Safety and Compliance Are Issues Ethanol Producers Can’t Afford to Ignore.

by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) ... Whether on private property or moving down the track, even small errors can be costly. Meanwhile, the ethanol industry's transition to DOT-117 rail cars is on schedule.

Rail transportation is a significant part of day-to-day operations for most of the ethanol industry, says Kelly Davis, vice president of technical and regulatory affairs for the Renewable Fuels Association, which also offers rail-related training. Specifically for ethanol plants located on a rail line, an average of three dozen railcars get moved daily, including receiving materials as well as shipping out ethanol and distillers grains. In all, about 70 percent of ethanol is transported to the marketplace via rail.

“We are the largest hazmat moving on the rail,” Davis says. “We are, by far, shipping more hazardous material as ethanol than any other flammable, including crude oil.”

Regulatory Compliance, Training
Since December 2010, the RFA has held 355 ethanol safety training events with more than 14,000 participants, says Missy Ruff, director of safety and technical programs for RFA. Due to Covid, the organization has now held 31 of those training sessions online. The shift actually allowed more people to take advantage of the training. “Instead of being in one location, training one town and maybe some people from the outskirts coming in, we’re getting people from other countries attending,” she says, adding that, to-date, RFA has trained people from a total of 29 countries.

In addition to training, the RFA has a 33-page manual called Best Practices for Rail Transport of Ethanol. It can be found at RFA’s website under Resources/Producers/Safety Information. The manual has never been restricted to RFA members only, Davis says.

One of the things the manual outlines is the importance of regulatory compliance.

“The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is definitely visiting our plant sites routinely to assure that our shippers are following these very strict regulations,” she says.

Leonard of Rail Safe Training, a past locomotive engineer, puts it another way. He believes private industries with onsite railroad tracks have a compliance problem. In visits to places that load flammable liquids, including but not limited to the ethanol industry, the company has observed plenty of issues. “Virtually none of them have 100 percent compliance with FRA mandated procedures,” he says.

He believes there’s a strong need for more railroad safety training among private industries, including ethanol.

Track maintenance is another thing Leonard sees as an area of concern. Ethanol plants that had brand new tracks installed when the facility was built now face the challenge of aging infrastructure, including rail lines.

Ethanol producers are also facing a May 1, 2023, deadline to update the remaining legacy DOT-111 tank cars to DOT-117 tank cars, as required by the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. READ MORE