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, it was certified under the Puro Standard, 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. It was certified under the Puro Standard in 2023.

NetZero's third production plant (second in Brazil) is located in Brejetuba, in the state of Espírito Santo. It was inaugurated in June 2024.

Built only 40 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 features the same production capabilities as Lajinha's but has benefitted from several technology improvements. It was certified under the Puro Standard in 2024.

Two additional sites are under construction in Brazil. These factories will feature additional improvements and will help further demonstrate the replicability and scalability of our model.

Along 2025, we will start the construction of several other projects that will feature Gen2 – our new generation of biochar production system – and will leverage other types of feedstocks beyond coffee husks.