advertisement

---

Ethanol plants that will be served by two Class Is and two short lines will open in Ohio and Minnesota the next few months.

A POET L.L.C. plant is scheduled to open tomorrow in Leipsic, Ohio. The $105 million POET Biorefining facility — Ohio's first ethanol production plant — will be located in the Iron Highway Industrial Park served by CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway and the Indiana & Ohio Railway. The facility will consume 22 million bushels of corn and produce about 65 million gallons of ethanol annually.

The Ohio Rail Development Commission provided grants totaling $450,000 and an $825,000 loan to help fund the construction of 13,800 feet of track to connect the industrial park to the three railroads' lines. POET also is building an ethanol plant near Marion, Ohio, that will be served by CSXT and a facility near Fostoria, Ohio, that'll be served by NS.

Meanwhile, Otter Tail Ag Enterprises L.L.C. expects to open an ethanol plant in Fergus Falls, Minn., in March.

To be served by Otter Tail Valley Railroad Co., the plant will use about 24.3 million bushels of corn and produce 65 million gallons of ethanol annually. Initially, the facility will produce about 57.5 million gallons.

Owned by RailAmerica Inc., Otter Tail Valley Railroad operates a 77-mile line between Fergus Falls and Moorhead, Minn. (near Fargo, N.D.), where the short line interchanges with BNSF Railway Co.