Overview. Nibulon's activities are divided into a series of distinct operations with respect to pollution prevention, risks and opportunities. The environmental department has nine employees and a state certified laboratory to verify observations and results. Due to the specificity of the different activities carried out by Nibulon, the main risks and the preventive measure taken are described below activity by activity:
Animal hold. Animal hold is for Nibulon a minor activity maintained at farms where these activities existed before Nibulon took over operations and these activities are today used for internal consumption; products are also sold at near-cost prices to employees. The total Nibulon animal hold is limited to approximately: cattle: 1,400 milk cows and 1,200 calves being raised for meat production; pigs: around 610 sows, producing 15-16 piglets per sow per year (non intensive operation), all of which are raised for slaughter pigs. All meat is being produced for internal consumption at Nibulon and is not sold on the market.
The very low animal hold compared with the land under cultivation by Nibulon means that the animal waste, for which Nibulon in accordance with national rules has 10 months of holding capacity at each animal holding facility, is insufficient for fertilizing the company's crop-land. Manure spreading is only carried out when the plants can utilize the fertilizer value; in short, there is no run off risk associated with the animal waste.
In winter, cattle are held in stables, typically found in former collective farms; they benefit from free field grazing during the summer. A cattle farm was visited and the animals were found to be healthy and without stress symptoms. Pigs are generally held in group housing, except when separation is needed for fertilization or faring. Each farm has its own veterinarian and medicine cabinet which can be accessed only by the veterinarian. The medicine cabinet was inspected at the cattle farm visited and it was found to be simple but appropriate.
Crop production. The production at Nibulon’s own farms is strictly limited to non-GMO crops; production does cover a broad spectrum of grain, corn and oil-bearing crops. Nibulon has equipped its farms with appropriate international standard heavy machinery for the large-scale production which is taking place. Crop specialists select the preferred crops and define crop rotation schemes suitable for the individual field's soil structure and climatic conditions (the southern Ukrainian steppes are rather dry, while the grain belt in the center of Ukraine has more moisture). With limited animal fertilizer available (only enough for 700ha out of 83,000ha) and rather dry conditions in some areas, Nibulon farms rely on commercial fertilizers and are also trying to limit full tilling of the soil to 40% and surface cultivation to 30% of the land each year; Non invasive handling (for example grazing areas) accounts for the rest.
Fertilizer and pesticide applications are handled according to the principles described in the OHS (see PS2 above). The chemicals do not contain Class 1a or 1b pesticides; and for accepted pesticides application is not allowed within 500 meters of rivers.
Energy consumption at the crop farms is reduced by using modern machinery and limiting deep plowing; fuel consumption is currently kept at around 64 liters per hectare (58 liters of diesel + 8 liters of gasoline), which is a very efficient operation with others typically operating at 70-100 liters per hectare.
Crop terminals. The crop terminals consist of receiving facilities with weighing and analytical laboratories, drying facilities for moist crops, and discharging facilities for further transport by either river barges, rail, or in rare cases, by trucks. Off-loading of the trucks is completely automated and takes place in fully sealed-off facilities where both operators and drivers leave the room before the emptying takes place. All air from these rooms passes through bag filters ensuring emission qualities better than 20 mg/Nm3. The crop dust collected in the off-loading facilities is later added back to the crop load at a safe location (to prevent the risk of dust explosions). From the truck off-loading room, the crops are either sent for drying or directly to storage silos. All transfer points, and final loading points for further transport, are equipped with bag filters ensuring adherence to the 20 mg dust/Nm3 emission limit.
The crop drying facilities consist of modern, high efficiency natural gas-fired dryers. From the drier unit, the warm crops are sent to force ventilated cooling silos in which the appropriate temperature for the storage silos are achieved and a final drying takes place with the help of the ventilation air. The interim silos also help mitigate fire risk from the dried crops before they are transferred to the main silos.
All crop terminals are equipped with their own wastewater systems for mechanical and biological treatment of domestic wastewater before it is discharged according to local conditions. The treatment parameters are within the WBG EHS guidelines and local regulations. For the main trans-shipment terminal, the parameters are 15 mg BOD/l, 0.3 mg Oil and grease/l, and 15 mg TSS/l.
While all wheat production in Ukraine is non-GMO and all Nibulon’s own crops are non-GMO, other crops on the market, like soy, rape, corn, etc can be GMO depending on the growers’ preference. Nibulon is therefore separating deliveries from GMO based suppliers from those not producing GMO based crops to be able to supply to its trading customers according to their preferences.
Vessel fleet operation. Nibulon's river transport of crops is currently carried out in 36 barges each of 4-5,000 tons or 2,000 tons respective capacity, depending on the draft of the rivers on which they are used with no motor power and thus no other spillable products being transported. These barges are either pushed or dragged by a number of tug boats (currently 12 and all belonging to Nibulon). Nibulon also has two floating loading crane systems, a dredger, and two hydrofoil passenger boats in their fleet. The tug boats are modern and well equipped diesel driven vessels of international standard. The risks related to barge, tug boat, floating loading cranes, dredger, and hydrofoil activities on the Dnipr and Southern Bug rivers are considered minimal as the vessels do not carry dangerous goods and the rivers are not under intensive use for transport, and therefore have very low collision risks.
The Southern Bug River has recently been dredged to regain part of its otherwise silted up draft. Before the break down of the Soviet Union the river was intensively used for transport. After 1991 the river was no longer maintained for this purpose and had slowly lost its commercial value due to diminished draft. The Ukrainian authorities wanted to re-dredge the river to a 2.9 meters draft, but did in the end fail to secure the financing. Subsequently Nibulon offered to ensure a dredging to 2.4-2.5 meters draft and this has been completed. There had been some disagreement with local fishermen, who with the new draft could no longer use (illegal) net set across the river as transport vessel would damage such nets. Through the normal environmental regulation system in Ukraine it was however established that the river should serve its long term traditional use as a transport route as it has significant positive impact by reducing road transportation and minimizing the CO2 emission otherwise cause by the road transport by approximately 4 kg/tons grain transported from the region in question.
While Nibulon was following the rules for the river transport they also took actions to change the barges and tugboats used by installing fishing net protections that would allow nets on the river to pass under the barges and tugboats without ripping damages when they pass. It is believed that these actions have solved the issues related to conflicts between transporters and fishermen.
Energy Efficiency and GHG emissions reduction. Nibulon is set up for minimal energy consumption by:
the use of modern efficient agricultural machinery at the crop farms, resulting in consumptions of 64 liter of fuel (diesel/gasoline) per ha cultivated,
Efficient natural gas fired crop driers at the crop terminals, and
Transferring of crops by river barges, instead of trucks, and alternatively rail wherever possible
