Biomass is defined as organic matter derived directly from living organisms, available on a renewable, sustainable basis. This includes crops and trees, their co-products and residues, as well as residues from various industrial activities, such as pulp and paper mills, sawmills and the organic fraction of industrial, municipal and agricultural waste.

An essential raw material for a variety of applications in the food, paper, textile, construction, and pharmaceutical and chemical intermediates industries, biomass can also make a significant contribution to energy supply – an application that would, however, compete with its other uses.

Biomass involves a number of crucial and sometimes conflicting policy issues, encompassing energy, the environment, agriculture, global trade, transportation and land use planning. These issues are extremely complex.

A wide array of applications