Ukraine Grain Transportation System: Call for Feasibility Study Proposals

EIT Food is calling for Feasibility Study proposals for a functional and rapidly deployable grain transport system, meeting criteria specified by the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture.

This call is to address one of the critical food issues facing Europe and many other countries today – the impact that the Russian invasion has had on grain exports from Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture has set a challenge to find ways to transport grain, for example through a longdistance pipeline, and they are seeking consortia to address this critical issue through a feasibility study.

Purpose of the Feasibility Study

• The Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture is seeking alternative ways, including an overland pipeline, to export large quantities of grain to mitigate their dependency on export by sea through ports affected by the Russian invasion.

• To support this initiative, they are calling for proposals for a Feasibility Study for a functional and rapidly deployable grain transport system, meeting the following criteria, which have been specified by the Ukrainian government.

• Address the feasibility of long-distance grain transportation, over a minimum of 100km, up to 300-500km.

• The system should be capable of transporting not less than 2 million tons of grain per year.

• The system of transportation should have the possibility to scale over distance and transportation volume.

• Minimise degradation of the grain during transportation. The permissible change in the quality of cereals (as measured by nature of the grains, fragmentation, moisture content, and other quality indicators) after transportation should not be greater than 10% of the values of the quality indicators of the input material.

• For indications of the quality of the input material, general and special indications of the quality of corn and wheat grains are taken, as prescribed by the ISO on the crops.

• The speed of grain transportation in the system itself is not regulated.

• The technological method of transportation is not regulated, it can be both classic conveyor systems of various types (like lancet, and pneumatic systems with transportation of various forms: Dense phase conveying, semi-Dense phase conveying) and diluted phase (Dilute phase conveying) or vacuum, or others.

Funding Information

• The total financial allocation for this call is EUR 300.000. The maximum support for each recipient is also EUR 300.000. Therefore, is it possible that one proposal only will receive funding. If the top-ranking proposal has a budget under EUR 300.000, more than one feasibility study may be funded.

Deliverables

• The Feasibility Study should describe the options explored and clearly address the design, build, usage, and maintenance challenges of the options. The study should also clearly state whether the options(s) evaluated could be implemented, outline expected costs and how these compare to other options, and the likely timeframe for implementation.

• Consortia may choose to deliver a prototype/demonstration together with the Feasibility Study

• If the Feasibility Study indicates that an option is viable, the consortium may be chosen by the Ukrainian Ministry of Agriculture to submit a full project/work plan proposal for continuation.

• The format of the Feasibility Study is up to the consortium. It should follow best practice in engineering studies, show the methodology followed and research undertaken. It should present the stakeholders in the Ministry of Agriculture with a clear analysis which will enable them to decide on whether to progress to an implementation plan. It should at a minimum cover design, economic analysis, safety and the geopolitical, environmental and social elements that would affect the project.