NetZero's full-scale pilot plant was built in Nkongsamba, in the Littoral region of Cameroon. It is Africa's first industrial-scale biochar production facility.

It sits next to Synergie Nord Sud (SNS), Cameroon's largest coffee-processing plant, who's owner is one of NetZero's co-founders. This ideal location gives NetZero a direct access to coffee husks, an abundant waste product of coffee transformation. It also gives NetZero a one-of-a-kind platform to distribute the biochar to small coffee growers that supply SNS.

Its production capacity can reach 2,000 tonnes of biochar per year.

In 2022, the project was certified by Puro.earth, the world's leading certification standard for high-permanence carbon removal.

NetZero's second production plant (first in Brazil) is located in Lajinha, in the state of Minas Gerais. It is South America's first industrial site dedicated to biochar production, and the world's largest facility producing biochar from crop residues. It was officially inaugurated in April 2023.

The feedstock — also coffee husk — is supplied with the help of our local partner Coocafé, a cooperative of 10,000 coffee growers. The resulting biochar is sold to Coocafé’s farmers to help them reduce fertiliser use while increasing yields and improving soil health.

This plant features the second generation of our production process, with significant improvements in productivity, reliability, and safety of operations. The plant is also satellite-connected in real time, allowing for remote monitoring and control of the process. Its production capacity reaches 4,000 tonnes of biochar per year — twice the one of Cameroon.

NetZero's third production plant (second in Brazil) is currently under construction in Brejetuba, in the state of Espírito Santo. It will be inaugurated by mid-2024.

Built only 25 kilometres away from our first Brazilian plant, it embodies our strategy of replicating mid-size production sites close to the sources of biomass, to minimise transport, logistics, and carbon footprint.

This plant will features similar production capabilities to Lajinha's and will benefit from additional technology improvements.

We will build several new sites in Brazil in 2024. These factories will feature additional R&D improvements and will help further demonstrate the replicability and scalability of our model.