Biomass

Fast Facts About
Energy from Biomass

Principal Energy Uses: Transportation, Electricity, Heat
Form of Energy: Chemical

Biomass is a semi-renewable energy resource that comes from plants and animals. We categorize this resource as semi-renewable because it must be carefully managed to ensure we are not using it faster than it can be replenished. Biomass contains stored chemical energy from the sun that plant produce through photosynthesis. Biomass can be burned directly for heat or converted to liquid and gaseous fuels through various processes. Liquid biofuels and biogas are energy carriers, or currencies, that are easier to use, transport, and store.

Humans have been using biomass for heating, cooking, and lighting, for thousands of years:

• Traditional biomass is wood, peat, or animal waste gathered and burned by people for cooking and heating. Traditional biomass is easy to store but has a low energy density and generates severe indoor air pollution with significant human health effects (almost 3 million deaths in 2023). Globally, over 2 billion people (~25% of the world’s population) still rely on traditional biomass, but energy statistics generally exclude it because it is not bought and sold, making it difficult to track. Traditional biomass provides ~7% of primary energy consumed worldwide.
• Commercial biomass (or modern bioenergy) is bought and sold and provides heat and electricity in homes, businesses, and industry, as well as liquid fuels for transportation. Commercial biomass accounts for ~6% of total end-use energy consumed worldwide.

Commercial biomass can be divided into three categories:

1. Solid Biomass (energy resource)—woody material, crops, municipal solid waste (MSW), and animal and agricultural waste that can be directly burned to produce heat or to generate electricity.
2. Liquid Biofuels (energy currency)—primarily ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel—come from processing plant matter or waste such as cooking oil into substitutes for or additives to traditional vehicle fuels, including gasoline for automobiles, diesel for trucks and ships, and jet fuel for planes (see our Gasoline, Diesel, Jet Fuel, etc. and Biofuels pages for more information).
3. Biogas (energy currency)—collected from decomposing plants, animal manure, human sewage, and municipal solid waste, and can be combusted for direct heat use or electricity generation. It can also be upgraded to biomethane (also known as renewable natural gas or RNG) by removing extra CO₂, moisture, and contaminants. Biomethane is indistinguishable from natural gas and can be used as a replacement.

Advocates for biomass argue it is carbon neutral because the carbon released during combustion is reabsorbed by new plant growth through photosynthesis, but in many cases, it’s not carbon neutral. For example, studies show it takes 40-100 years for forests clear-cut for commercial biomass to regrow and reabsorb carbon from the atmosphere, and regrowth is uncertain (e.g., fire, insect damage, and re-harvest can all limit or prevent forest recovery). In the interim, the released carbon contributes to climate change. However, using waste streams for bioenergy can reduce climate and environmental impacts.

There are two main ways we can create bioenergy from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW):

• Waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration plants are the most common because of their capacity to reduce the volume of waste in landfills. They can also generate electricity and heat but have significant air pollution impacts.
• Landfill gas recovery captures the methane emissions from decomposing biomass in landfills or sewage treatment plants and burns the methane for heat and/or electricity generation. This method is cleaner-burning than WTE incineration and reduces methane emissions to the atmosphere.

Bioenergy from waste has experienced significant growth in Asia, especially in China, over the last decade.

Note: The data in the charts below do not include traditional biomass.

Commercial Biomass/Modern Bioenergy

Solid Biomass (Energy Resource)

Liquid Biofuels (Energy Currency)

Biogas (Energy Currency)

World

Biomass (Primarily for Electricity and Heat)

Biofuels (Primarily for Transportation)

Biogas (Primarily for Electricity and Heat)

U.S.

Biomass in the U.S. (for Electricity and Heat)

The U.S. dominates the wood pellet export market. In 2023, it exported 8.8 million metric tons (29% of total global wood pellet exports). Most exports go to Europe and come mainly from forests in the Southeast U.S. Eighty-five percent (9.2 million tons/year) of the U.S.'s wood pellet manufacturing capacity is in the South, mainly in North Carolina and Georgia.

Biofuels in the U.S. (for Transportation)

Biogas in the U.S. (for Electricity and Heat)

*Includes biogas production from landfill gas energy projects and livestock anaerobic digesters
**Includes biomethane production across four project types: food waste, landfills, livestock and agriculture, and water resource recovery facilities

Climate Impact: Low to High

• Bioenergy crops have different energy yields, and some crops require significant energy inputs, reducing or eliminating their carbon savings
• Land use change such as deforestation or conversion of peat swamps to fuel crops releases carbon dioxide and methane
• Tapping waste streams for bioenergy can reduce these impacts

Environmental Impact: Medium to High

• Significant air pollution (e.g., vehicles burning biofuels deteriorate air quality and human health, particularly in urban settings)
• Bioenergy crop production may induce deforestation (e.g., in Southeast Asia, rainforests were converted to palm oil plantations to feed the EU’s demand for biodiesel)
• Agricultural processes can impact soil, water resources, and local biodiversity (e.g., increase in fertilizer use for corn ethanol has contributed to the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico)

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