NIBULON’s leading specialists and the branches’ employees, who work with the production capacities, constantly collect and systematize all data, offers, identify bottlenecks, analyse and select the most perspective engineering and technical solutions in terms of technology and construction of new facilities. The process is well-organized and therefore the system works like a Swiss watch. 
Given the fact that peak of construction of grain storage facilities was in 2012, 2016 and 2017, short intervals between these years enabled us to analyse production, to identify bottlenecks, to evaluate and improve previously tested technical solutions, to carry out all necessary preparatory work and clearly plan the ways of their implementation.
If we compare the technical component of grain complexes of “Kozats’ka” and “Pereiaslavs’ka” branches built in 2012 with “Voznesens’ka” branch built in 2016, we can find more than 40 absolutely new technical solutions that have a positive technical and economic effect; this is without taking into account small innovative proposals of local importance.
Despite the fact that less than a year has passed between the construction of “Holoprystans’ka” branch, “Khortytsia” branch (2017) and construction of “Voznesens’ka” branch (2016), we can find up to 50 significant technical differences at the terminals of the new generation. This enabled us to make both technical and technological breakthrough. In addition to facilitating of labour for a person, the qualitative improvement of the technological process makes it possible to reduce production costs and to increase its economic efficiency. Perfection of production, labour protection, working conditions, fire and environmental components, profitability are closely related and mutually complementary.
The construction process itself is substantially optimizes with each subsequent implementation of projects. Everyone knows that we construct elevators in 100 days. In this case, a clear, well-planned and well-organized cooperation with contractors, the ability to make flexible decisions is very important.
For example, when planning the construction of foundations for silos, it is worth taking into account the time for which reinforced concrete will pick up a design mark to ensure safe performance of work on the installation of silos. Only if the work is organized with the systematic consideration of all requirements of the technical regulations, we can ensure that under no circumstances there is a risk of failure of the fasteners during the installation of metal structures, wall panels, frame, stiffeners of silos, etc. Our company appreciates quality of the objects and safety of people above all.
And when designing a reinforcing cage for silos on the recent construction sites, its partial local displacement was taken into account for fast mounting of the anchor of the heel of the supporting structure.  In this case, we thoroughly planned the obstacles removal in the process of installation work and prevented the loss of working time during the anchoring of load-bearing steel silo structures.
In addition, we designed and equipped the monolithic foundations for the entire floor area at the recent terminals. This made it possible to avoid local deformations, breaks and subsidence of the floor when loading silos with grain, as well as provided more load-bearing capacity of the foundations, which in turn reduced maintenance costs, increased the speed of shipment and simplified the cleaning of silos. 
We bought chain conveyors for “Holoprystans’ka” branch and “Khortytsia” branch and mounted them on the upper galleries with a closed casing of the gate valve and an inclined top cover of the casing. This enabled us to remove rainwater and to exclude the possibility of rainwater entering the grain while storing it.
During the construction of these branches, the wishes of the technological and repair personnel were also taken into account. In particular, for the first time in the company’s construction practice, lifts with a lifting capacity of 2,000 kg and a lifting height of 41.3 m were used in the headhouses, which significantly improved the working conditions of workers and reduced the operating time for technological equipment maintenance.
The company took care of improving the working conditions of the dispatchers, whose work is characterized by additional nervous tension and responsibility when making operative decisions. To this end, ergonomic indicators of dispatching preliminary projects have been thoroughly developed and all proposals of operational personnel for optimizing the management of the production process have been taken into account. At present, a dispatching office has a convenient location; it is equipped with modern computers, a modern air conditioner; regardless of the weather conditions and seasons, all the necessary microclimate parameters are maintained there.
However, use of new energy-saving technologies and reaching a previously unattainable level of energy saving was the priority when modernizing and improving the production of all new branches. 
And here we are not talking about the use of modern technologies for heating rooms, water, etc., which we actively use at all branches, but we are talking about the technology of high-speed drying introduced at all terminals built after 2009.
Four main methods of convective drying of grain widely used today are:  high-temperature drying, high-temperature drying with active ventilation (two-stage drying), a combination of high-temperature and low-temperature drying, low-temperature drying with active ventilation.
Analysis of the current state of drying technology previously conducted by our specialists shows that the convection method of high-temperature drying, which is the most common in the production, has practically exhausted its capabilities in the direction of intensifying the increase in drying speed and reducing energy consumption. The existing high-temperature grain dryers do not have a flexible process scheme that provides drying under optimal conditions, depending on the initial grain parameters, and do not provide a comprehensive solution to the problem of grain quality control during processing. As of today, it is economically unreasonable to combine the opposite technological processes, i.e. fire drying and cooling in a single process unit, which interferes with the rational use of heat accumulated by the grain in the first drying period, and completely consumes its potential in drying during temporary thermostating, followed by cooling in systems of active ventilation.
As the world experience shows, one of the most promising technological principles for reducing energy costs is a two-stage energy-saving drying; the essence of it is that grain after fire drying is released from grain dryers with the unconditional moisture content of about 4-5%, with a temperature of 50 -55 ° С; after that it is thermostated with a certain exposure time within 8-12 hours and cooled in a separate tank at active ventilation units for 12-15 hours with a change of air supply to prevent decomposition of the upper layer of grain at low filtration rates to normalized moisture at minimal energy consumption.
Such a technology and modes were developed in 80-90’s of last century. But at that time there were no enterprises where it could be implemented in compliance with the requirements of technical regulation of the process. The enterprises operating at that time with outdated equipment were not able to provide the proper equipment for the quick drying process adhering to all the necessary requirements. That is, the technology has gone ahead, and the level of technical equipment of enterprises has not changed. We needed new modern automated production that would purposefully be built for new technologies.
To implement the world experience of introducing energy-saving technologies, NIBULON’s specialists for the first time in Ukraine developed the technology of two-stage grain drying for modern grain dryers of last generation and improved classical systems of active ventilation in modern structures of metal silos. At the same time, many questions arose in the development process, the answers to which we had not at that time. Therefore, together with the equipment manufacturers, we made significant changes in the design of dryers, silos, and in the construction of active ventilation systems, which was completely developed by our engineers and has patent novelty. Only in the process of solving the above-mentioned problem, we introduced about 20 inventions.
Thus, for the first time in Ukraine we built enterprises where the most modern technologies of grain drying and storage were implemented, and the equipment was improved specifically for this project. This was a significant event for grain industry since no one has ever used such technologies in practice so far.
In 2009-2012, NIBULON put thirteen elevator complexes and transshipment terminals into operation. They were built on the concept of energy-saving high-speed drying technology. These are: “Vitove” branch, “Globyns’ka” branch, “Romodan” branch (2009), “Skorokhodivs’ka” branch, “Gradyz’k” branch, “Kamianka-Dniprovs’ka” branch, “Kremenchuts’ka” branch, “Marianivs’ka” branch (2010), “Denykhivs’ka” branch, “Teteriv” branch, “Novoodes’ka” branch (2011), “Kozats’ka” branch, “Pereiaslavs’ka” branch (2012).
In addition, the company installed advanced ventilation systems with an aeration coefficient of filling the floor area with aeration channels at the level of 0.20 at “Kozats’ka” branch and “Pereiaslavs’ka” branch. If compared to the branches built from 2009 to 2012, this rate was 0.17 
In 2016-2017, the company put three transshipment terminals of “Voznesens’ka” branch, “Holoprystans’ka” branch, “Khortytsia” branch into operation. We installed even more advanced active ventilation systems there that were previously tested at “Kozats’ka” branch and “Pereiaslavs’ka” branch with increased coefficient of filling the floor area with aeration channels. It is 0.22 for “Voznesens’ka” branch, and 0.30 for “Holoprystans’ka” branch. In 8 years of implementing new solutions, the coefficient of filling the floor area with aeration channels, taking into account the peculiarity of grain storage in metal silos with the capacity of 2,300 tons, increased from 0.17 to 0.30; that is, it increased by almost 76%. For reference: increasing the coefficient of filling the floor area with aeration channels leads to an improvement in the quality of grain stored due to more even supply of air to the grain mass and to a decrease in the probability of creating stagnant zones, which ultimately leads to a reduction in energy costs for ventilation. For the first time we have used active ventilation channels on silos with a capacity of 5,500 tons with a coefficient of filling the floor area with aeration channels at the level of 0.15 at “Khortytsia” branch. This is a very high rate for silos with capacity of 5,500 tons.
In addition to design of the high-speed drying technology, in 2009-2012, the company used DMG 26 R dryers (6 units) with a theoretical capacity of 100 tons per hour and Mathews 3180 BEМ NG dryers (20 units) with a theoretical capacity of 75 tons per hour, and tanks of active ventilation in the amount of 52 units (2 tanks (2,300 tons) per 1 dryer).
In 2013, we carried out additional modernization of our branches. We installed four more DMG 26 R dryers and two Mathews 3180 BEМ NG dryers in the high-speed drying line.  
The company has 62 grain dryers; 52 of them (83 %) are involved in operations related to energy-saving drying technologies. 254 grain silos (with a total capacity of 1,205.000 tons) or 66 % of the total capacity of silos are involved in operations related to energy-saving high-speed drying.
The economic calculation of the new technology application shows that, depending on the volume of the batch of grain that gets to drying, the capacity of dryers increases by 20-25 %, specific costs of natural gas are reduced by 0.15-0.20 cubic meters per ton•%, specific energy costs – by 0.14-0.18 kW·h per ton•%, economic efficiency – at the level of UAH 3-5 per ton•%, depending on the specific conditions of the process.
Taking into account the fact that during the drying period from 20 to 30 % of grain, depending on location of the facility and weather conditions, is dried by speed drying, the economic feasibility of performing these works as a whole for the enterprise is from UAH 6 to 10 million.
Summarizing the aforementioned, you understand that an engineering idea has a real and measurable technical force in the material world. The interesting decisions we have made in the past are the architects of our present and an incentive for development in the future.
The long-term experience and a well-reasoned approach will enable NIBULON to introduce advanced technologies, including the ones in energy saving, to maintain its leadership in the Ukrainian agricultural market in conditions of severe competition, and to compete with the international companies in the global market. 
The next step is the construction of two transshipment terminals on the Dnipro River in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, which are new challenges for the company to introduce the best achievements.