Production of the wood chips

Our company processes virgin forest biomass for the production of wood chips of various sizes, to be used as fuel or as material for biofilters.

For the production of wood chips we use the wood from our forests

The wood is shredded into chips through mechanical processes, from silvicultural cuts of timber of mostly chestnut trees from the neighbouring forests close to our factory in Bormida (province of Savona).

The cut, the harvest and the transport of the wood to the factory is executed almost exclusively by local services, through a short value chain of supply which extends to the direct management of the forest  

The wood is then stored outside the factory for the beneficial maturation, and cut to the required sizes by a dedicated chipper. The facility provides screening in order to eliminate foreign elements such as stones, soil as well as parts of the bark.

For the production of the chips we process 70/80 tons of wood in our factory every year. The final product is primarily marketed as:

1. Fuel for biomass boilers for the production of electricity or district heating
2. Material for biofilters for air purification and minimising of bad smell emissions.
   
   
   

From the coal to the chips production

The Pastorino family has been processing and marketing wood in Bormida for more than 300 years.

It’s been documented that in 1713 Giovan Battista Pastorino moved from Rossiglione (GE) to Bormida (SV) as a result of the decision of the Republic of Genoa to acquire the Marquisate of Finale which territory included Bormida.

Wood working experts – with young Giovan Battista being one of them – were sent to the area which was already densely wooded.

From that point onwards the Pastorino family had settled in Bormida focusing on the processing and the harvest of the wood.

In the second half of the 19th century, Carlo (fu Felice) Pastorino laid the groundwork of the current company with the coal production, the harvest and marketing of firewood.

Also his son Ettore followed in his father’s footsteps (there is a copy of his registration at the Chambers of Commerce in 1910) allowing the company launched by the father to grow and prosper.

Due to heavy socio-economic changes after WWII the last century showed the commercial and productive reality of firewood and coal in a severe crisis: the company therefore shifted their focus towards the harvest and processing of wood for the production of chips to be used in the steelwork sector. 

And so in the early 1980s, Adolfo Pastorino – Ettore’s son – founded the Benarco Sas (“Benarco” being the anagram of the Italian word for coal – carbone) which up until now as Pastorino Srl produces chips made from virgin timber.

After the Italian steelwork crisis, Benarco specialised initially in the supply of chestnut timber for the production of tannic acid and finally in the use of forest biomass, as wood chips, as energy sources totally clean, renewable and sustainable.  

The Benarco company, among the first Italian companies of the sector, began providing high quality wood chips used on the one hand for the production of electricity or heat energy (chipped as fuel for biomass boilers) fully respecting the environment and on the other hand the purification of exhaust air in an environmentally-friendly manner (chipped as material for biofilters).

Today the Pastorino Srl proceeds with the business and is proud of their deep roots in history: therefore, despite the changed name, they have decided to keep the historical logo of the Benarco company.

 

Three generations compared

Carlo Pastorino