Onida, SD: Grain Elevators and Ringneck Energy

Ringneck Energy: (Satellite, the plant is new enough that there are no buildings in the 2019 image)

Grain Elevators: (Satellite, I'm too lazy to count, but it looks like this town may have more bins and silos than it does houses even though it has quite a few houses.)

One of several photos posted by Fearless Grain Marketing LLC and shared by Jeremey Frost

When the satellite image taught me that this plant is new, I dug deeper because I knew that the ethanol market has been negatively impacted since 2016 by changes in EPA regulations and the tariff war with China. [SPglobal]

The tracks through this town used to be owned by Chicago & North Western. According to a modern map, they are now owned by Canadian Pacific. On the satellite image, two of the four tracks south of town are full of covered hoppers and both tracks north of town are full of cars. When I saw that all of the tracks (two) north of town were used for storage, I scanned the tracks to the north to confirm that the route is abandoned north of town. But it is intact down to Blunt, SD where CP has bought another former C&NW route.

Ringneck Energy photo via MitchellRepublic

As part of building the ethanol plant, they added tracks to store tank cars. The corn is sourced locally and there are feedlots in the area to provide a market for the distiller's grains that is a coproduct of producing ethanol. So this plant doesn't need hopper cars.

Production was delayed because of blizzards and rains, but it started on April 23, 2019. But it took them a while to get things tuned up and running smoothly. "Ear plugs might have been in short supply in Onida. Tuning up the new boilers meant blowing off steam in a big way that made normal conversation in Onida homes not possible for a few days, according to a report in the Onida Watchman weekly." And they are building a muffler in case they have problems again in the future. It achieved full production by June 17, 2019, "turning 80,000 bushels of corn every day into 225,000 gallons of ethanol....About 14 years ago, the United States became the world’s biggest producer of ethanol and the nation’s production has kept growing: from 1.6 billion gallons in 2000 to 3.9 billion in 2005 to 13.2 billion in 2010 and about 16 billion last year." [MitchellRepublic]

Another clue that this plant is new is that it needs only two bins to store the corn because they are big. This photo is a reminder that modern steel bins add a new section at the bottom and then jack up the bin to make room for the next section.

Ringneck Energy Facebook

Ringneck Energy's web site brags about using better technology, but I couldn't find any info about the technology. In a phone interview with CEO Walt Wendland, he cited a good corn yield locally and the new technology as competitive edges that should allow them to survive the down market for ethanol. [SPglobal]   CapJournal has a lot of the same text and the same photo. They do add "The key role the plant plays in the region’s farm economy is illustrated by the fact that one of Ringneck Energy’s directors is Tim Luken, general manager of Oahe Grain Corp. in Onida."

Concerning the new technology:

Wendland said efficiency improvements to ethanol production over the past several years will help shield the plant from problems that older facilities have faced.
ICM provided the design and engineering for Ringneck, and Wendland pushed the company for the most efficient equipment available.
"The very first time I met with ICM, I wanted assurances that I wasn't going to get the same cookie cutter they've built a hundred times. If they weren't going to give me a better mousetrap, I wasn't going to bring a plant to the area."
ICM has designed over 100 ethanol plants and holds 21 technology patents, according to the company's website.
Some of the efficiency comes from evaporators and molecular sieves that are larger than those at other plants, as well as improved heat recovery and degasification to aid distillation, Wendland said.
Wendland hopes the plant can gain a low carbon intensity score under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which would create a premium for the plant's ethanol. Certification under the program, however, takes time.
[SPglobal]

One of several photos posted by Fearless Grain Marketing LLC, cropped
Drone pictures of our local agricultural; some of RingNeck and some of CHS bunker getting filled with corn.
[I haven't found these bunkers on a satellite image. They have a lot of bins close to town.]

Jeremey Frost posted
Bob Summers Question Are these grain bunkers included in the licensed capacity of grain elevators now, so the elevator can put grain in them they are storing for customers? Back in the day if we just piled grain on the ground it had to be company owned.
Jeremey Frost Either owned or delayed priced.
Dennis DeBruler This group is great because it keeps teaching me stuff. "Delayed priced" sounds like customer storage. But I learned it is just for a few months so the risk of spoilage is low.
https://www.farmerstradingco.com/.../DEFERREDPRICING.pdf