Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how biomass is defined, e.g., only from plants, from plants and algae, from plants and animals. The vast majority of biomass used for bioenergy does come from plants and fecal matter. Bioenergy is a type of

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

that the bioenergy industry claims has the potential to assist with climate change mitigation.

Uses in different contexts

Ecology

Biomass (ecology) Biomass is the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. Biomass can refer to ''species biomass'', which is the mass of one or more species, or to ''community biomass'', which is the mass of all species ...

, the mass of living biological organisms in a given area or ecosystem at a given time. This can be the biomass of particular

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

or the biomass of a particular

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

Energy

* Biomass (energy), biomass used for energy production or in other words: biological mass used as a

source (usually produced through

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...

or aquaculture methods) * Bioenergy, energy sources derived from biological material ** Solid fuel, forms of bioenergy that are solid **

Biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from Biomass (energy), biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels such as oil. Biofuel can be produced from plants or from agricu ...

Energy crops Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production (not for food). The crops are processed into Solid fuel, solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as Pellet fuel, pellets, bioethanol or biogas. T ...

Biotechnology

Biomass is also used as a term for the mass of microorganisms that are used to produce industrial products like

enzyme An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

s and medicines.

Bioproducts

Examples of emerging bioproducts or biobased products include biofuels, bioenergy, biochar, starch-based and cellulose-based

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

, bio-based adhesives, biochemicals, bioplastics, biogas/biomethane, hydrogen from biogas, etc.

Biological wastewater treatment

In biological wastewater treatment processes, such as the activated sludge process, the term "biomass" is used to denote the mass of

bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...

and other

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...

s that break down pollutants in wastewater. The biomass forms part of sewage sludge.

Others

* Biomass (satellite) - an Earth observation satellite * Waste biomass fibre - potential source for cleaner production of

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

References

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