Green Plains subsidiary opens new terminal

Ethanol producer Green Plains Renewable Energy's wholly owned subsidiary BlendStar has commenced operations at its newly built 96-car train terminal in Birmingham, Alabama.

The new terminal is served by the BNSF Railway and has a throughout yearly capacity of 300 million gallons of ethanol.

'The Birmingham terminal will provide more efficient distribution of ethanol to underserved markets in the south eastern US,' says Todd Becker, president and CEO of Green Plains. 'We have unloaded the first unit train of ethanol and expect the terminal to be at full capacity in January 2013.'

The Birmingham terminal currently has storage for 160,000 barrels and a four-lane covered truck rack but both of these have the potential to be expanded.