New Load Toad makes feed loading safer, profitable for ethanol producers

At Poet Biorefining-Mitchell, loading Dakota Gold dried distillers’ grains (DDGS) is safer for employees and more profitable thanks to new equipment designed by Poet.

The Load Toad allows the rail car to be packed more densely by forcing DDGS to the sides of the rail car. By distributing the DDGS load more evenly and efficiently, Poet plants have been able to pack 3 percent to 5 percent more DDGS into each car.

In addition to the time and cost savings, the patented device makes the loading process safer for workers. This process was previously done manually with a hand shovel.

“Testing and refining the Load Toad has been a great team effort,” Poet Biorefining-Mitchell General Manager Dean Frederickson said.

“The unit has proven to be a very dependable piece of equipment. The freight cost savings go straight to the bottom line.”

Commodities Assistant Ryan Schroeder from Poet Biorefining-Leipsic in Ohio developed the first prototype of the Load Toad as a solution to a common loading problem that led to cone-shaped pileups in the rail cars.

These pileups dramatically lowered efficiency in each rail car and created a great deal of physical work for staff.

“It felt good knowing that not just our plant would benefit, but the commodities people at all the Poet plants would benefit,” Schroeder said.

The Load Toad is currently being used at Poet plants, but the company is exploring opportunities to market the technology to other ethanol producers in the future.

Poet is the largest ethanol producer in the world, with a production capacity of more than 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol and 9 billion pounds of high-protein animal feed annually from 27 production facilities nationwide.

— From a Poet news release

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