Description

Sylva Fertilis, a part of the SLB Group, a forestry consortium in France, specializes in the manufacturing of high-quality biochar products for both retail and wholesale markets. They are one of the largest biochar suppliers in France. Their manufacturing facility, located in Argentan in the Normandy region, produces biochar from wood pellets. The wood pellets are sourced from a manufacturer near Reims in the east of France, which produces pellets from timber from sustainably certified forests.

The process results in two granularities of char: 0-1 mm and > 1mm. A small portion of the biochar is augmented with mycorrhizal fungi to create soil improvement products under the Terra Fertilis® brand. The remaining biochar is sold as soil improvement products to municipalities, farmers, golf courses, wine producers, and forestry operations.

The biochar has an extremely high carbon content of 95%, and each dry ton of biochar contains 3.4 tonnes of CO2. In 2022, Accend carried out a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of Sylva Fertilis' production process, which accounted for all process emissions from the harvesting of forestry materials, chipping and pelletizing, transport, energy use and packaging, and transport of the biochar, and confirms that 2.62 tonnes of CO2 are stored for every 1 ton of biochar.

The company has recently decided to double their production capacity, supported by buyers of CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs).

Application

Co-benefits

• Harvesting and forestry management sustainably decreases the risk of forest fires, insect damage and diseases.

• Biochar is deployed directly or indirectly for soil improvement. It dramatically increases water and nutrient retention in the soil leading to yield increases.

• Biochar reduces nutrient leaching, which has caused damage to waterways and seas.Biochar reduces the need for artificial fertilizers, which are typically energy-intensive to produce.

• Green jobs: The production of biochar creates green jobs throughout the value chain from harvesting to distribution and usage.

Emissions avoidance

The baseline scenario for the usage of pellets is combustion, either domestically or in bioenergy production. In otherwords, in the absence of Sylva Fertilis' production, the pellets used as feedstock would be burnt resulting in the release of CO2. The global warming impact of burning pellets is between 150-190 gr. CO₂ e/MJ. In the long-term, these emissions can be considered to be carbon-neutral as the source is biomass.

Additionality

The income from Puro.earth allows Sylva Fertilis to develop and grow their business. They have made the decision to double their production capacity by investing in an additional pyrolysis reactor. CORC revenue are also invested into creating new distribution channels for Biochar which will, in turn, increase carbon removals.