Over 50 percent of the locks and dams created by the Corps of Engineers are over 50 years old. Many built in the 20's and 30's are at the end of their design lives. Ethanol movements by barge are limited by waterway, weather, and infrastructure problems. In addition to physical infrastructure problems, chemistry can frustrate our operations. Ethanol shipment by pipeline is impossible because of contamination problems resulting from alcohol's affinity for bonding with water.
Water is present in all pipelines.
Without low cost pipeline movement, ethanol proves expensive to transport, and it is blended mainly in areas close to corn stills, a majority of which are in the Midwest. Where reformulated gasoline markets are far from the corn belt, ethanol trucking costs increase significantly. Regulatory restrictions ranging from oxygenate requirements in RFG to urban air toxics requirements have imposed additional burdens on our business in terms of cost and infrastructure. 15 ppm in the same timeframe, while off-highway diesel regulations are still under development. To date, only the refinery process has been studied.