What Is Biomass? Types, Sources and Uses

What Is Biomass?

Biomass is the general name for organic matter of living origin — plants, trees, and agricultural and animal residues. In energy, biomass means the organic material that is burned, gasified or turned into biogas to produce energy: corn stalks, hazelnut shells, olive pomace, wood chips, sawdust, animal bedding and the like.

As plants grow, photosynthesis stores the sun's energy as chemical energy. When biomass is burned, the energy released is that stored solar energy. Because the resource is renewed with every harvest, every pruning and every production cycle, biomass is considered a renewable energy source.

Note: In ecology, "biomass" also means the total mass of living organisms in a given area — the sense in which biomass shrinks as you move up a food pyramid. This guide is about biomass as an energy source.

Types and Sources of Biomass

Biomass for energy falls into a few groups by source. The calorific values below are typical ranges from published sources; actual values vary with moisture, source and lot.

Group	Examples	Typical net calorific value
Crop stalks and straw	Corn stalks, sunflower, cotton and rice stalks, straw	3,000–3,600 kcal/kg
Shells and stones	Hazelnut shells, walnut and almond shells, apricot kernel shells, rice husk	3,000–4,400 kcal/kg
Olive pomace	Dry pomace and pomace pellets	4,000–4,500 kcal/kg
Forestry products	Wood chips, sawdust, pine pellets	2,000–4,500 kcal/kg (by moisture)
Animal residues	Poultry litter, cattle bedding, manure	Varies with moisture; manure mostly goes to biogas
Marine sources	Seaweed, algae, fish waste	Variable

Energy crops grown purely for fuel, such as poplar and miscanthus, and organic waste from food processing and municipalities also count as biomass; that waste mostly goes to biogas. All 26 products Biyolink supplies are on our Products page.

How Is Energy Produced From Biomass?

Direct combustion

The most common method. Solid biomass such as wood chips, pellets, shells and stalks is burned in a boiler, and the heat produces steam or hot water. Steam is used directly in production processes or passed through a turbine to generate electricity. Biomass power plants and industrial boilers work this way.

Co-firing

Biomass is burned together with coal or petcoke at a set blend ratio. Biomass used as "alternative fuel" in cement kilns is the best-known example; it cuts fossil fuel use and the carbon cost that comes with it.

Gasification and pyrolysis

Heated to a high temperature with limited oxygen, biomass turns into a combustible synthesis gas (gasification). Heated without oxygen, it yields biochar, bio-oil and gas (pyrolysis). These methods need more complex plants.

Biogas

Animal manure, food waste and wet organic waste are digested by bacteria without oxygen into methane-rich biogas, which is used to produce electricity and heat; the digestate can be used as fertiliser.

Liquid biofuels

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and bioethanol from sugar- and starch-rich crops. They are used mainly in transport.

Advantages of Biomass Energy

• Renewable: the resource regrows every year.

• Carbon cycle: the CO₂ released on burning is carbon the plant took from the air as it grew. Under EU Emissions Trading System rules, emissions from burning biomass that meets the sustainability criteria count as zero — which also matters to exporters covered by CBAM.

• Domestic resource: unlike imported coal and petcoke it is produced at home, reducing import dependence and currency risk.

• Turns waste into value: stubble that would be burned in the field, or shells piled in storage, become income for farmers and fuel for industry.

• Continuous output: unlike solar and wind it does not depend on the weather; boilers and plants can run day and night.

Limits and Things to Watch

• Low energy density: biomass is bulkier than coal, so the same energy needs more transport and storage — logistics is a big part of the cost.

• Variable quality: moisture, ash and calorific value change from lot to lot; every lot should be analysed.

• Seasonality: agricultural biomass appears at harvest time, so year-round use needs stock planning.

• Ash and slagging: some fuels, such as straw and stalks, are high in ash and alkali; compatibility with the boiler should be checked first.

• Sustainability: biomass should come from sources that do not threaten forests or food production. Residues and by-products are the safest choice.

Biomass in Turkey

Rich in agricultural and forestry products, Turkey (Türkiye) has a significant biomass potential, and the sources differ by region:

• Black Sea: hazelnut shells, forestry products, rice

• Aegean and Mediterranean: olive pomace and olive residues, cotton stalks

• Çukurova and the Southeast: corn and cotton stalks

• Central Anatolia and Thrace: wheat and barley straw, sunflower stalks, rice

• Marmara: forestry products and sawdust from the timber and furniture industries

The Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources' Biomass Energy Potential Atlas (BEPA) maps the potential of agricultural, animal and forestry residues province by province, and the Ministry's biomass page gives the wider picture. Biomass power plants are supported under Turkey's renewable energy support mechanism (YEKDEM).

Biomass in Industry

Biomass is used most at plants that need continuous heat and steam:

• Cement plants: alternative fuel in kilns

• Paper, textile and food plants: steam and hot-water boilers

• Biomass power plants: electricity and cogeneration

• Greenhouses and drying plants: heating

• District heating systems

The boiler type drives the fuel choice: grate boilers take coarse, irregular fuels, fluidised-bed boilers a wide range of fuels, and automatic burner systems prefer uniform fuels such as pellets. For a comparison of pellets and wood chips, see this article.

How to Buy Biomass

When buying biomass at industrial scale, continuity, quality and logistics matter as much as price. Expect a good supplier to offer a product range, laboratory analysis, planned shipments and weighbridge records; our guide on how to choose a biomass supplier covers the details.

Biyolink buys 26 different biomass products from their producers in Turkey, verifies them with laboratory analysis and delivers them to industrial plants on a planned schedule. See how our biomass supply works or get in touch. If you have agricultural, animal or forestry residues, we buy those too.