The Transformation of LLC “Radyvylivmoloko”: from a separator point to a modern factory

LLC “Radyvyliv­moloko” — one of the largest dairy pro­duc­ers in West­ern Ukraine, has com­plet­ed a major envi­ron­men­tal mod­ern­iza­tion. The com­pa­ny has built a com­plex of treat­ment facil­i­ties for indus­tri­al waste­water with a capac­i­ty of 500 m³ per day. The project was imple­ment­ed with the sup­port of the pro­gramme Best Avail­able Tech­niques (BAT) for Ukraine 

From a sep­a­ra­tor point to a mod­ern fac­to­ry 

The enter­prise, locat­ed in the vil­lage of Kru­pets, Dub­no dis­trict, Rivne region, has come a long way in its devel­op­ment. Since 1976, a sep­a­ra­tor point oper­at­ed here as part of the Dub­no cheese fac­to­ry. Every­thing changed in 1996, when the cur­rent direc­tor took over the lead­er­ship of the com­pa­ny.

I came as a direc­tor in ’96. At that time the enter­prise was pro­cess­ing 3 tonnes of milk per day, and 30 peo­ple worked here. When I arrived, I under­stood that the sep­a­ra­tor point was not the future. So I had to start build­ing a fac­to­ry, says Ana­toliy Hrysyuk, Direc­tor of LLC “Radyvyliv­moloko”. 

Over 30 years, the enter­prise has trans­formed into a mod­ern dairy plant. Today more than 800 peo­ple work here, includ­ing employ­ees who are involved in col­lect­ing milk, pro­cess­ing it, and sell­ing prod­ucts. Every year the fac­to­ry pays more than 125 mil­lion hryv­nias in tax­es. The enter­prise pro­duces fer­ment­ed dairy prod­ucts, hard and semi-hard cheeses, but­ter, and casein under the trade marks “Rady­Mo”, Farm Fresh, and “Milkove”. Part of the pro­duc­tion but­ter, casein, and sev­er­al types of cheese is export­ed. 

With the growth of pro­duc­tion, the amount of waste­water also increased up to 340 m³ per day. Dairy pro­cess­ing waste was tra­di­tion­al­ly trans­port­ed by trac­tor and dis­posed of in fil­tra­tion fields. This approach did not meet mod­ern stan­dards for han­dling indus­tri­al waste­water, espe­cial­ly since the fac­to­ry is locat­ed direct­ly with­in the bound­aries of a res­i­den­tial area. 

With the devel­op­ment of the enter­prise, I under­stood that with­out build­ing treat­ment facil­i­ties there would be no future. This is both a mat­ter of ecol­o­gy and a mat­ter of rela­tions with local res­i­dents, because the fac­to­ry is locat­ed with­in the vil­lage, the direc­tor explains. 

In order to find the best solu­tion, the direc­tor spent time study­ing the expe­ri­ence of waste­water treat­ment in Europe and vis­it­ing enter­pris­es where mod­ern treat­ment sys­tems oper­ate. “I did not find a good exam­ple in Ukraine”, he states. There­fore, a deci­sion was made to build with the involve­ment of a Euro­pean com­pa­ny and using Euro­pean equip­ment. 

LLC “Radyvyliv­moloko” received grant sup­port from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Inter­na­tionale Zusam­me­nar­beit (GIZ) GmbH with­in the frame­work of Best Avail­able Tech­niques (BAT) for Ukraine 

The pro­gram is imple­ment­ed on behalf of the Inter­na­tion­al Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive (IKI) of the Fed­er­al Min­istry for the Envi­ron­ment, Nature Con­ser­va­tion, Nuclear Safe­ty and Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion of Ger­many. The grant cov­ered up to 20% of the con­struc­tion costs of the treat­ment facil­i­ties. A loan was pro­vid­ed by JSC Oschad­bank. 

Hav­ing learned that there was an oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in the grant, we wrote a pro­pos­al and won the grant. The part of the funds  we received from GIZ helped us to put the treat­ment facil­i­ties into oper­a­tion more quick­ly and effi­cient­ly, says the direc­tor. 

The enter­prise was select­ed on a com­pet­i­tive basis on a num­ber of key cri­te­ria. An impor­tant role played the high envi­ron­men­tal sig­nif­i­cance of the project for the region and the poten­tial for scal­ing up in the dairy pro­cess­ing indus­try. 

What was built: Euro­pean-lev­el tech­nolo­gies 

With­in the project, a com­plex of indus­tri­al waste­water treat­ment facil­i­ties with a capac­i­ty of 500 m³/day was con­struct­ed and put into oper­a­tion. The sys­tem includes buffer, anox­ic, aer­a­tion, and selec­tor tanks, adapt­ed to the spe­cif­ic fea­tures of dairy pro­cess­ing pro­duc­tion. 

A sys­tem of par­tial recir­cu­la­tion of treat­ed water for tech­no­log­i­cal needs was also intro­duced in par­tic­u­lar for wash­ing con­tain­ers and equip­ment. The oper­a­tion of the com­plex is sup­port­ed by an auto­mat­ed sys­tem for mon­i­tor­ing treat­ment para­me­ters and the envi­ron­ment  in real time. “The new treat­ment facil­i­ties are built using mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy. Every­thing hap­pens in auto­mat­ic mode,” the fac­to­ry direc­tor empha­sizes. 

What changed after the treat­ment facil­i­ties were launched 

Accord­ing to the tech­ni­cal spe­cial­ists of the enter­prise, with­in the frame­work of the project imple­men­ta­tion, waste­water treat­ment effi­cien­cy of near­ly 100%  was achieved. In addi­tion, 1/3 of the treat­ed water is now reused for tech­ni­cal needs — main­tain­ing fire reser­voirs, clean­ing the ter­ri­to­ry, and so on. Inde­pen­dent lab­o­ra­to­ries con­firmed the effec­tive­ness of the sys­tem’s oper­a­tion. The treat­ed water, which meets envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards, is dis­charged into the riv­er. 

Con­sump­tion of fresh water also decreased by more than 20, the load on the treat­ment facil­i­ties was reduced, and costs for water dis­pos­al went down. The enter­prise has been brought into com­pli­ance with the require­ments of Direc­tive 2010/75/EU on indus­tri­al emis­sions. 

“For me, this grant is an envi­ron­men­tal result, it is a result for the future. It is the preser­va­tion of nature, the health of peo­ple, and the peace of the com­mu­ni­ty,” the head of the enter­prise sum­ma­rize. 

The issue of waste­water pre­vi­ous­ly caused dis­sat­is­fac­tion among res­i­dents of the sur­round­ing vil­lages. After the treat­ment facil­i­ties were put into oper­a­tion, these com­plains stopped. Employ­ees of the enter­prise point out that from the very begin­ning the project had a social focus.

First of all, this is a social­ly ori­ent­ed project. We are locat­ed with­in the bound­aries of vil­lages, so that there are no unpleas­ant smells, so that there are no pub­lic dis­tur­bances.

The pos­i­tive effect is also not­ed at GIZ. Gabriel Sauer, Direc­tor of the Project “Best Avail­able Tech­niques  for Ukraine”, par­tic­u­lar­ly empha­sizes the social dimen­sion of the imple­ment­ed project: 

I think it is worth high­light­ing that there is a very sig­nif­i­cant change for the pop­u­la­tion here, which has sub­stan­tial­ly improved over the past year thanks to the imple­men­ta­tion of these tech­nolo­gies. The sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties some­times com­plained about the waste­water pro­duced at this enter­prise, and now this prob­lem no longer exists. I think this is a real relief for the entire sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ty and for the farm­ers, Mr. Sauer com­ments. 

Expe­ri­ence worth scal­ing up 

Spe­cial­ists of the enter­prise are con­vinced: sim­i­lar solu­tions should become the stan­dard for the indus­try.

Such things must exist in Ukraine. They must be present at every enter­prise. Peo­ple need to be giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn, so that they imple­ment and use the best tech­nolo­gies.

The fac­to­ry direc­tor is already look­ing fur­ther ahead: if the enter­prise con­tin­ues to grow, the next step may be the con­struc­tion of addi­tion­al treat­ment facil­i­ties using bio­gas, which would make it pos­si­ble to turn waste into a source of ener­gy.