ABSTRACT
The term “biomass” encompasses a wide range of materials of recent origin classified as either waste or dedicated energy crops. Waste biomass includes any organic material that has negligible apparent value, represents a nuisance, or is a pollutant to the local environment. Dedicated energy crops are biomass grown specifically for the production of biobased products and fuels. This term excludes crops grown for food or feed even though they can also be used to produce energy. It also includes organic material with maturation times of hundreds to millions of years such as fossil fuels and some forest trees with long maturity terms. Biomass is primarily a form of solar energy stored as chemical energy within organic compounds. The solar-to-biomass conversion process involves interactions among numerous factors, leading to different types of biomass.
