Biomass is a term for organic matter derived from living, or recently living organisms. It is used as a source of energy in both commercial and domestic environments. The term biomass often refers to plants or plant-based materials which are not used for food or feed, such as wood, algae or bamboo.

Some types of biomass are planted deliberately as a crop. Usually in large monocultures for ease of harvesting. These crops can be intended to produce fibres, biochemicals or energy products. For example, Maize for biogas production, Willow or Miscanthus for solid fuel and cereals for liquid fuels.

Quite often the energy inputs in terms of machinery use, fertilizers and processing can dramatically reduce the environmental gains made from displacing fossil fuels.

At first biomass has received more attention in Europe because of its possible contribution to the energy transition. But more and more the interest is growing in the use of the biodegradable fraction, waste and residues of biomass originating from agriculture (including vegetal and animal substances), forestry, wood industries, but also fisheries as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste.

Biochar is a carbon-rich solid that is derived from biomass (organic matter from plants ) that is heated in a limited oxygen environment,
called pyrolysis. Biochar is the first step of the pyrolysis, the char is not activated.

Charcoal is also a carbon-rich solid that is always derived from woody biomass in a similar manner. Charcoal is generally intended for
heating or cooking, and is commonly associated with barbequing. Charcoals is always wood based.

Activated carbon is a carbon-rich solid that is derived from biomass or other carbonaceous substances such as coal or tar pitch, using
pyrolysis. In the process, a carbon material is also “activated” by processes that greatly increase the surface area of the material, allowing it to capture (or “adsorb”) a larger quantity of molecules. This high adsorption capability allows activated carbon to be effective at removing contaminants from water and air, which is why activated carbon is typically intended for remediation or purification projects.

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In general it can be assumed, that weight reduction of the input biomass is one third, so if you pyrolyse 1 ton of biomass you will have about 300 kg of biochar. But the weight is dependent from when the material is haversted (i.g. in summer or autumn). Also the conversion conditions are responsible for different results. If for example the pyrolyser operates at 500° C it will convert 30% of biomass to char but if the pyrolysis is done at 700° C then the biochar produced is less but more active, which also means that it can be used for different purposes.