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 is located in Lajinha, in the Brazilian 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 on 20 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. Its production capacity reaches over 4,500 tonnes of biochar per year — more than twice the one of Cameroon.

We will build two other sites in Brazil in 2023. These factories will include additional R&D improvements and will help further demonstrate the replicability and scalability of our model.