Description

Sylva Fertilis is part of the SLB Group, a forestry consortium in France. The company manufactures high-quality biochar products for both retail and wholesale markets and is one of the largest suppliers in France. Sylva Fertilis’ process involves the production of biochar from wood pellets at their facility at Argentan, in the Normandy region. The wood pellets are sourced from a manufacturer near Reims in the east of France, which produces pellets from timber from forests certified by the PEFC as non-controversial. Two granularities of char are produced: 0-1 mm and > 1mm. A small share of the biochar is augmented with mycorrhizal fungi to create soil improvement products that are marketed under the Terra Fertilis® brand. The remaining volumes of biochar are sold as soil improvement products to municipalities, farmers, golf courses, wine producers and forestry operations. The biochar has an extremely high carbon content, 94%, each dry ton of biochar contains 3,4 tonnes of CO2. A lifecycle assessment (LCA) of Sylva Fertilis' production process was carried out by Accend in June 2021. The LCA accounts for all process emissions from the harvesting of forestry materials, chipping and pelletizing, transport, energy use and packaging and confirms that 2.80 tonnes of CO2 are stored for every 1 ton of biochar. The company has recently taken the decision to double their production capacity, supported by CORC buyers.