Eliminating Lines at LDC Claypool

Just in time for harvest comes some improvements at Louis Dreyfus Company in Claypool, Indiana. The plant, which is the largest fully integrated soybean processing and biodiesel plant in the US, has built new soybean storage. LDC Commercial Manager Jeremy Mullins says the two new storage barns will each hold up to 3 million bushels.

“As soybean seed technology continues to increase, yields are getting better every year. They’re more resistant to all the different problems that Mother Nature might present. We just feel that there needs to be more storage for that crop. Obviously, there are advantages for us. We crush a lot of soybeans every year and it’s kind of like an insurance policy for us. We want to ensure that we have an adequate supply of soybeans no matter what time of year it is. We want to get as many as can at harvest, of course, when they’re most plentiful.”

Mullins says their goal is to eliminate truck lines, and to do that they now have two high-speed dump pits.

“It’s pretty amazing how fast things are moving. We’ve only used it for a week now, but we’ve made substantial improvements just in the first week of using them. We’ve cut our time on site down by half. So, scale in/scale out time is getting close to that 10-minute mark. We’re hoping to be in single digits here soon.”

A video on new traffic patterns at the plant can be found above.

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