Biochar joint venture

A third of the stalk will never make a deck. It can still hold its carbon for a century.

Decortication screens out dust, fines and short fibre before anything reaches the compounder. Today that fraction is burned in the open or left to rot, and either way its carbon is back in the atmosphere inside a season, along with the particulates. Pyrolysed instead, most of that carbon becomes a stable solid that stays in soil for centuries, and the heat from the reaction dries the fibre we do want, so the kiln pays part of its own running cost. This is a by-product venture run side by side with our growers, not a carbon scheme bolted on for a slide. There is no kiln yet, and every number on this page says so.

Africa fibre chain ESG evidence Circular materials

1,674 t

Net durable CO2 removal a year at the current settings

Estimated

777 t

Biochar produced a year, grower allocation taken first

Estimated

£260,094

Net JV revenue a year after verification cost

Estimated

Char yield

Estimated

30%

Of dry feedstock mass, continuous retort

Carbon in the char

Estimated

78%

Fixed carbon content, batch characterised

Permanence claimed

Assumed

75%

Conservative century fraction, adjustable below

Credits bought

Verified

None

We do not buy offsets and do not claim neutrality

Screened fibre fines and dust separated at a decortication yard

How it fits the process

One yard, one weighbridge, two products instead of one.

Most small-scale pyrolysis fails on feedstock. Wet, mixed, unscreened material makes inconsistent char that no methodology will accept. Our fibre line hands the kiln dry, screened, single-species fines as a matter of routine, because that is what the compounder rejects.

The heat loop is the part that makes the economics work. Syngas from the reaction is burned in the same unit rather than flared, and the waste heat is ducted into the drying floor. That removes the argument for a gas burner at origin and takes cost out of a stage we were paying for anyway.

1. Residue arrives at the decortication yard

What happens: One yard, one weighbridge, one set of records. The biochar venture needs no separate collection round because the material is already there.
New or existing: Existing fibre chain

2. Stalk splits into fibre, hurd and fines

What happens: Bast fibre goes to the grower's textile buyer, hurd goes to our compound, and the dust, fines and short fibre are the fraction nobody has a use for.
New or existing: Existing fibre chain

3. Fines and screenings go to the kiln

What happens: Feedstock is dry, uniform and already screened, which is the single hardest input condition for small-scale pyrolysis and the reason most village kilns underperform.
New or existing: New for the JV

4. Pyrolysis at 450 to 600 degrees

What happens: Oxygen-limited conversion in a continuous retort. Char out of the bottom, syngas burned in the same unit to sustain the reaction rather than flared.
New or existing: New for the JV

5. Process heat returns to fibre drying

What happens: The waste heat that would leave the stack is ducted into the drying floor, cutting the drying stage cost and removing the case for any fossil burner at origin.
New or existing: New for the JV

6. Char is characterised and split

What happens: Batch sampled for fixed carbon, hydrogen to organic carbon ratio, ash and contaminants. The grower's soil allocation is taken first; the balance is saleable.
New or existing: New for the JV

7. Two revenue lines leave the site

What happens: Soil amendment sold locally, and durable removal tonnes registered if and only if the MRV is in place. Neither line is counted twice.
New or existing: New for the JV

Step	What happens	New or existing
1. Residue arrives at the decortication yard	One yard, one weighbridge, one set of records. The biochar venture needs no separate collection round because the material is already there.	Existing fibre chain
2. Stalk splits into fibre, hurd and fines	Bast fibre goes to the grower's textile buyer, hurd goes to our compound, and the dust, fines and short fibre are the fraction nobody has a use for.	Existing fibre chain
3. Fines and screenings go to the kiln	Feedstock is dry, uniform and already screened, which is the single hardest input condition for small-scale pyrolysis and the reason most village kilns underperform.	New for the JV
4. Pyrolysis at 450 to 600 degrees	Oxygen-limited conversion in a continuous retort. Char out of the bottom, syngas burned in the same unit to sustain the reaction rather than flared.	New for the JV
5. Process heat returns to fibre drying	The waste heat that would leave the stack is ducted into the drying floor, cutting the drying stage cost and removing the case for any fossil burner at origin.	New for the JV
6. Char is characterised and split	Batch sampled for fixed carbon, hydrogen to organic carbon ratio, ash and contaminants. The grower's soil allocation is taken first; the balance is saleable.	New for the JV
7. Two revenue lines leave the site	Soil amendment sold locally, and durable removal tonnes registered if and only if the MRV is in place. Neither line is counted twice.	New for the JV

The loop, in one line

Residue in, bast fibre to the grower's textile buyer, hurd to our compound, fines to the kiln, char to soil or to a registry, and the process heat back into the drying floor that made the hurd usable in the first place. Nothing leaves the yard as waste.

Carbon model

Removal with the process emissions taken back off.

Char mass times fixed carbon times the permanence fraction, converted at 44 over 12. Then kiln fuel and handling are subtracted, and the recovered drying heat is credited only against the fossil burner it genuinely replaces. Drop the permanence fraction to sixty per cent and the number still stands up, which is the point of putting it on a slider.

Assumptions

Feedstock available to the kiln

3,700 t

Share actually pyrolysed

70 per cent

Permanence fraction claimed

75 per cent

Char returned to growers for soil

35 per cent

Soil amendment price

£210/t

Durable removal price

£118/t CO2

Feedstock pyrolysed

Estimated

2,590 t

A year, screened fines and short fibre

Biochar produced

Estimated

777 t

272 t to grower soil, 505 t sold

Gross removal

Estimated

1,667 t

CO2 locked in the char before deductions

Net removal

Estimated

1,674 t

Less 109 t process, plus 116 t heat credit

Soil amendment revenue

Estimated

£106,061

Sold locally, grower allocation excluded

Removal revenue

Estimated

£197,565

Only if the MRV below is in place

Verification cost

Estimated

-£43,531

£26 per tonne CO2, netted off

Net to the JV

Estimated

£260,094

Split by the structure chosen below

The ratio, shown so it can be judged

At these settings the programme removes enough durable carbon to match the modelled cradle-to-gate footprint of 4,064 benches a year, against 412 kg CO2e per bench. Removal per tonne of feedstock is 0.45 t. We publish that ratio because a reader is entitled to weigh it. We do not subtract it from the bench footprint, and no headline figure anywhere on this platform is net of biochar.

Estimated

JV structure

Who owns the kiln, and who owns the carbon.

The second question is the one most schemes leave vague, and it is the one growers should ask first. Our default is the first structure: the cooperative owns the kiln and the carbon rights, financed against our offtake, and we buy removal tonnes at an agreed price rather than helping ourselves to them.

Grower-owned kiln, Canopei offtake

Kiln owner: Grower cooperative, financed against our offtake agreement
Carbon rights: Held by the cooperative. We buy removal tonnes at an agreed price and retire nothing on their behalf without written instruction.
Char sales: Cooperative sells locally; we take no cut of soil amendment revenue
Grower profit share: 80%
Capital per site: £92,000
Strength: Fastest to stand up, cleanest story, and the carbon asset sits with the community that produced the feedstock.
Weakness: We do not control operating discipline, and a badly run kiln produces char that fails characterisation and earns nothing.

Jointly owned unit

Kiln owner: Shared entity, growers and Canopei
Carbon rights: Split with the profit share, registered once, with the split written into the registry account before the first batch.
Char sales: Sold through the JV, grower soil allocation taken out first at no charge
Grower profit share: 50%
Capital per site: £138,000
Strength: We can hold the operating standard that makes the char sellable, and the accounting is single-entity, which auditors prefer.
Weakness: Cross-border governance, real reporting duties, and buy-out mechanics that must be agreed up front rather than negotiated later.

Structure	Kiln owner	Carbon rights	Char sales	Grower profit share	Capital per site	Strength	Weakness
Grower-owned kiln, Canopei offtake	Grower cooperative, financed against our offtake agreement	Held by the cooperative. We buy removal tonnes at an agreed price and retire nothing on their behalf without written instruction.	Cooperative sells locally; we take no cut of soil amendment revenue	80%	£92,000	Fastest to stand up, cleanest story, and the carbon asset sits with the community that produced the feedstock.	We do not control operating discipline, and a badly run kiln produces char that fails characterisation and earns nothing.
Jointly owned unit	Shared entity, growers and Canopei	Split with the profit share, registered once, with the split written into the registry account before the first batch.	Sold through the JV, grower soil allocation taken out first at no charge	50%	£138,000	We can hold the operating standard that makes the char sellable, and the accounting is single-entity, which auditors prefer.	Cross-border governance, real reporting duties, and buy-out mechanics that must be agreed up front rather than negotiated later.

Method and evidence

A removal tonne is a measurement, not an intention.

The accounting basis is a durable-removal methodology of the Puro.earth type^[1], with char quality thresholds from the European Biochar Certificate^[2] and the treatment of soil carbon as long-lived taken from IPCC inventory guidance^[3]. Two of the six requirements below cannot be met until a kiln is running, and they are marked accordingly.

Feedstock eligibility and additionality

What it means here: Only residue that would otherwise be burned or left to decay qualifies. Because the fibre line takes the structural fraction first, the kiln feed is by definition the fraction with no alternative use, which is the cleanest additionality argument available.
Status: Specified

Char characterisation per batch

What it means here: Fixed carbon, hydrogen to organic carbon ratio below 0.7, ash, and heavy metal and PAH limits, sampled per batch and retained. Without the H to Corg ratio there is no permanence claim to make.
Status: Specified

Mass balance and weighbridge records

What it means here: Feedstock in, char out, moisture at both ends, tied to the same batch identifier the fibre chain already carries from field to deck.
Status: Specified

Process emissions accounted, not ignored

What it means here: Kiln fuel, handling, and transport of char to its application site are subtracted before any tonne is claimed. Recovered drying heat is credited only against the fossil burner it genuinely replaces.
Status: Specified

Independent verification and registry issuance

What it means here: A durable-removal methodology of the Puro.earth type, verified by a third party, with issuance on a public registry so a buyer can see the serial number rather than our spreadsheet.
Status: Not yet

Application tracking

What it means here: Where the char physically went, on whose land, at what rate. This is the line most schemes leave loose and the one a serious buyer checks first.
Status: Not yet

Requirement	What it means here	Status
Feedstock eligibility and additionality	Only residue that would otherwise be burned or left to decay qualifies. Because the fibre line takes the structural fraction first, the kiln feed is by definition the fraction with no alternative use, which is the cleanest additionality argument available.	Specified
Char characterisation per batch	Fixed carbon, hydrogen to organic carbon ratio below 0.7, ash, and heavy metal and PAH limits, sampled per batch and retained. Without the H to Corg ratio there is no permanence claim to make.	Specified
Mass balance and weighbridge records	Feedstock in, char out, moisture at both ends, tied to the same batch identifier the fibre chain already carries from field to deck.	Specified
Process emissions accounted, not ignored	Kiln fuel, handling, and transport of char to its application site are subtracted before any tonne is claimed. Recovered drying heat is credited only against the fossil burner it genuinely replaces.	Specified
Independent verification and registry issuance	A durable-removal methodology of the Puro.earth type, verified by a third party, with issuance on a public registry so a buyer can see the serial number rather than our spreadsheet.	Not yet
Application tracking	Where the char physically went, on whose land, at what rate. This is the line most schemes leave loose and the one a serious buyer checks first.	Not yet

Honest limits

What we will not claim until a kiln is running.

There is no kiln. Every removal tonne on this page is a model output from a stated feedstock, char yield and permanence fraction, not a verified or issued credit.

We do not claim the bench is carbon neutral, and we do not net biochar removals against the bench footprint in any headline figure. The ratio is shown so it can be judged, not so it can be spent.

Removal tonnes cannot be sold twice. If a tonne is sold as a credit, it is not also counted inside our own footprint reduction, and the register on the ESG page states which side each tonne sits on.

Soil amendment yield and water-retention benefits are real in the literature and highly site-dependent. We report them as Estimated and we will not put a yield uplift percentage in a sales deck until our own partner trials produce one.

Open-air burning of the same residue is the counterfactual, and it is a genuine air quality harm today. That strengthens the case for the kiln and does not, by itself, entitle us to a carbon claim.

Partner volumes

Where the feedstock comes from, partner by partner.

The kiln does not have a feedstock market. It has the fines from the same yards that make our fibre, which is why the carbon side cannot outgrow the bench side. Full carbon rights and MRV evidence per partner sit on the Africa chain page.

Hemp Solutions South Africa

To the kiln: 1,344 t/yr
Char: 403 t/yr
Net removal: 869 t CO2/yr
MRV documented: 50%
Carbon rights held by: Jointly owned unit, split 50/50 at the registry account

Lesotho National Development Corporation

To the kiln: 780 t/yr
Char: 234 t/yr
Net removal: 504 t CO2/yr
MRV documented: 0%
Carbon rights held by: Grower cooperative, financed against our offtake

Cannabis Research Association, Malawi

To the kiln: 646 t/yr
Char: 194 t/yr
Net removal: 418 t CO2/yr
MRV documented: 25%
Carbon rights held by: Grower association, held on behalf of member farms

Canhem and Willowmead

To the kiln: 504 t/yr
Char: 151 t/yr
Net removal: 326 t CO2/yr
MRV documented: 0%
Carbon rights held by: Operator companies, individually

Tanzania Sisal Board

To the kiln: 2,744 t/yr
Char: 823 t/yr
Net removal: 1,774 t CO2/yr
MRV documented: 25%
Carbon rights held by: Board and Canopei, jointly, per estate

Partner	To the kiln	Char	Net removal	MRV documented	Carbon rights held by
Hemp Solutions South Africa	1,344 t/yr	403 t/yr	869 t CO2/yr	50%	Jointly owned unit, split 50/50 at the registry account
Lesotho National Development Corporation	780 t/yr	234 t/yr	504 t CO2/yr	0%	Grower cooperative, financed against our offtake
Cannabis Research Association, Malawi	646 t/yr	194 t/yr	418 t CO2/yr	25%	Grower association, held on behalf of member farms
Canhem and Willowmead	504 t/yr	151 t/yr	326 t CO2/yr	0%	Operator companies, individually
Tanzania Sisal Board	2,744 t/yr	823 t/yr	1,774 t CO2/yr	25%	Board and Canopei, jointly, per estate

Record that travels on

Registry serial range, and a retirement certificate when a tonne is spent

Tonnes claimed but never serialised cannot be audited by a buyer, and a tonne retired twice is fraud rather than error.

Privacy boundary

The chain records material, not people. A field identifier, a mass and a date are commercial facts about a consignment; a grower's name, plot boundary or household is not published on this platform and is not part of any registry submission.

Where a smallholder association aggregates many farms, the registry sees the association and the aggregate mass. Member level allocation is settled inside the association under its own rule, and we do not hold or publish that split.

Application records name a destination reference, not a person. A buyer verifying a batch gets the serial, the mass, the laboratory certificate and the date, and nothing that identifies an individual.

No sensor on a bench is part of this chain. Node telemetry and the custody record are separate systems with separate retention, and neither can be joined to the other from the public side.

Estimated

From a measured batch to an issuable credit

References

Methodology sources, stated in full.

[1]
Biochar methodology for durable carbon removal · Puro.earth
The accounting basis used here: durable removal by biochar, verified per batch and issued on a public registry, rather than avoidance offsets bought on a market.
Verified
[2]
Guidelines for the production of biochar · European Biochar Certificate
Char quality thresholds referenced in the characterisation requirement, including the hydrogen to organic carbon ratio and contaminant limits.
Verified
[3]
2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines, biochar in managed soils · IPCC
That biochar carbon in soil is treated as long-lived in national inventory guidance, which is the basis for a permanence fraction rather than a full-carbon claim.
Verified