What is biomass?
Biomass refers to living and recently living biological material used as fuel or industrial production — fibers, chemicals or heat. Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum. Biomass is part of the carbon cycle. Carbon from the atmosphere is converted into biological matter by photosynthesis. Upon decay or combustion the carbon is returned into the atmosphere. This happens over a relatively short timescale and plant matter used as a fuel can be constantly replaced by planting for new growth. Although fossil fuels have their origin in ancient biomass, they are not considered biomass because they contain carbon that has been ‘out’ of the carbon cycle for a very long time. Their combustion therefore disturbs the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere, and this is the primary cause of global warming.
Plant matter, whether growing wild or cultivated by man, represents a massive quantity of a renewable resource we call biomass. Carbohydrates that are formed by combining carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the earth are the building blocks of biomass. Biomass represents a useful and valuable resource to humans. The value of the biomass contents is related to the chemical and physical properties of the large molecules of which it is made. Humans have long exploited the solar engery stored in the chemical bonds by burning biomass as fuel and eating plants for the nutritional entergy of their sugar and starch content. More recently, humans have exploited fossilized biomass in the form of coal, and exploited chemically useful biomass constituents in making paper and textiles. Still other chemicals in the form of natural product pharmaceuticals can be recovered. If we burn biomass efficiently, oxygen from the atmosphere combines with the carbon in plants to produce carbon dio
Biomass is a scientific term for living matter, and is also used for products derived from living organisms. Biomass used for heat and electricity production comes from recently grown plants and the waste from animal husbandry and includes agricultural and forestry residues, energy crops, and the biodegradable components of municipal and business wastes Biomass can be used as a fuel to provide heat, electricity or fuels for transportation. Although biomass releases carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned it differs from fossil fuels in that the CO2 was recently absorbed from the atmosphere when the plants grew.
Biomass is any organic material made from plants or animals. Domestic biomass resources include agricultural and forestry residues, municipal solid wastes, industrial wastes, and terrestrial and aquatic plants grown solely for energy purposes. Agriculture and forestry residues, particularly residues from paper mills, are the most common biomass resources used for generating electricity and power, including industrial process heat and steam, as well as for a variety of biobased products. For more information, visit the Office of the Biomass Program Web site.
