2 Your Town Port Allen: Port of Greater Baton Rouge is the 7th largest in the country

The useful part

A new liquid terminal is in the works at the Port of Greater Baton Rouge and it's part of a broader push to grow one of the country's largest ports. The dock is still under construction, but once finished it will be used to export bulk petroleum products. Jay Hardman has spent 26 years at the port, the last 20 as executive director.

How it works

• WBRZ's Michael Shingleton visited the port for a look at what's new and what's coming.
• A British company ships nearly 2 million tons of them a year down the Mississippi River to be burned as a sustainable fuel source in place of coal.
• "If you would've told me that someone is going to come in and export wood pellets out of the Port of Baton Rouge to burn to make steam, to make electricity," Hardman said, "I would say I'm having a hard...
• It's happened." The port's history goes back to the early 1950s, when the port commission broke ground on the cargo dock.

Details worth keeping

One of the port's more unexpected operations involves wood pellets. Community Coffee still has a footprint on the port's property today. The grain elevator now handles about 5 to 6 million tons a year.