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Biomass' Glossary
 Definition of Biomass - Biomass means everything of organic origin, excluding plastic and fossil substances. The most important kinds of biomass are forest residues, industrial and wood processing waste, livestock farm waste, market waste and solid urban waste. During photosynthesis plants transform the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere and the water and the nutrients found in the soil into carbohydrates, which comprise the basic elements of the biomass. Solar energy created by photosynthesis is stored in the chemical bonds of the structural elements of the biomass. Efficient combustion of the biomass allows for extraction of the energy stored within the chemical bonds and atmospheric oxygen and, combined with the carbon found in plants, it results in combustion products such as water and carbon dioxide. One of the main advantages of biomasses as sources of renewable energy is that, aside from the energy used to gather and transport them, biomasses are neutral with regard to the emission of greenhouse gases: the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) released during the combustion process is equal to the one previously absorbed by the plants during the process of chlorophyll photosynthesis. Therefore, the energy used for collection and transportation must be minimized in order to retain neutral emission levels. Biomass is the fourth most important energy source worldwide, right after coal, petroleum and natural gas. It is used in heating (residential and industrial), cooking (especially in developing countries), transportation (fuels such as bio-diesel and bio-ethanol), and in producing electric power.
Developing Biomass Plants - A biomass energy project involves many advantages: in broad terms, it contributes to decreasing reliance on foreign countries for power and to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (the biomass coexists with the natural CO2 cycle, since during combustion or decomposition it returns to the environment the same amount of CO2 taken during growth); as far as land is concerned, taking economic advantage of a fuel that can originate, for example, from cleaning local forests, can be an incentive for structuring an integrated forest maintenance program, which can involve benefits at the occupational, tourist and environmental levels. On the other hand, it must be pointed out that profitability is often uncertain and is strictly dependent on the local availability of materials, the density of connections and the size, which therefore need to be carefully appraised during the planning stage. Dedicated crops are the most immediate answer to demands for increased power biomasses, relying on agricultural willingness to increase current production and on the possibility of planning productivity interventions in this field. It is a matter of creating an alliance between the power production process and agriculture, so as to promote the rotation of SRF biomasses with food crops.
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