MISSION

Renewables

Intro

Biomass

Biomass is the name given to any recent organic matter that has been derived from plants as a result of the photosynthetic conversion process. Biomass energy is derived from plant and animal material, such as wood from forests, residues from agricultural and forestry processes, and industrial, human or animal wastes.

Biomass is often called 'bioenergy' or 'biofuels'. These biofuels are produced from organic materials, either directly from plants or indirectly from industrial, commercial, domestic or agricultural products. Biofuels fall into two main categories:

Woody biomass includes forest products, untreated wood products, energy crops, short rotation coppice (SRC) e.g. willow, miscanthus (elephant grass).

Non-woody biomass includes animal wastes, industrial and biodegradable municipal products from food processing and high-energy crops e.g. rape, sugar cane, maize. SRC and high energy crops are sometimes referred to under the more general term of 'energy crops' i.e. crops that are grown specifically for energy.

These sources of biomass are then converted into useable heat, electricity or motive power using a range of conversion processes. These include combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, fermentation and mechanical processing. During the conversion processes when energy is released, often in the form of heat, the carbon is reoxidised to CO2 to replace that which was absorbed while the plant was growing.