Violanta Group invested EUR 4.2 million in its Larissa, Greece, plant that will produce 2,500 tons of cookies per year in a facility running without a chimney. The plant will be completed around mid-June and trial production already shows impressive results, the company says.

Violanta is building “the first and only biscuit factory in the world without a chimney,” it says. The environmental innovation allowing this is the ‘Violanta steam-free’ combination technology, which operates without exhaust chimneys in the production line and without steam and hot gas discharge chimneys. Instead, special geothermal water exchangers are used.

The patented technology was developed by the company’s president and owner, Konstantinos Tziortziotis, who, “after many years of planning, in collaboration with engineers and company executives, developed and put in operating ‘green’ technology, which allows us to design today a more sustainable tomorrow for all,” according to the company’s announcement. The new technology developed by Violanta is expected to be the starting point for a new technological redefinition of many baked products worldwide, the company anticipates.

Removing the chimney from the plant’s design also meant a vertically integrated electric tunnel oven was selected, which will run on renewable energy sources. In order to eliminate water vapor emission chimneys and hot greenhouse gases, special water exchangers were designed, manufactured and installed, which, through geothermal energy, separately cool the water vapors, liquifying them. Aside from reducing CO2 emissions, the technology also enables free hot water production, in quantities that are sufficient to cover the factory’s needs.

The new production line installed in Violanta’s factory will produce petit beurre cookies, digestive cookies, Cookies Full 45 and cookies with three ingredients.

Photo: Violanta