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Definition: biomass from Philip's Encyclopedia

Total mass (excluding water content) of the plants and/or animals in a particular place. The term is often used to refer to the totality of living things on Earth; or those occupying a part of the Earth, such as the oceans. It may also refer to plant material that can be exploited, either as fuel or as raw material.

biomass

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Total mass of living organisms present in a given area. It may be used to describe the mass of a particular species (such as earthworm biomass), for a general category (such as herbivore biomass – animals that eat plants), or for everything in a habitat . Estimates also exist for the entire global plant biomass. Biomass can be the mass of the organisms as they are – wet biomass – or the mass of the organisms after they have been dried to remove all the water – dry biomass. Measurements of biomass can be used to study interactions between organisms, the stability of those interactions, and variations in population numbers. Growth results in an increase in biomass, so biomass is a good measure of the extent to which organisms thrive in particular habitats. For a plant, biomass increase occurs as a result of the process of photosynthesis . For a herbivore, biomass increase depends on the availability of plant food. Studying biomass in a habitat is a useful way to see how food is passed…
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Full text Article biomass

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Total mass of living organisms present in a given area. It may be used to describe the mass of a particular species (such as earthworm biomass), for a general category (such as herbivore biomass – animals that eat plants), or for everything in a habitat . Estimates also exist for the entire global…
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Full text Article biomass

From Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary
Any organic source of energy or chemicals that is renewable. Its major components are (1) trees (wood) and all other vegetation; (2) agricultural products and wastes (corn, fruit, garbage ensilage, etc.); (3) algae and other marine plants; (4) metabolic wastes (manure, sewage); and (5) cellulosic…
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Basic principle and T/S diagram for a...
1. Introduction 2. Basics of Biomass Combustion: Principles and Fuels 3. Key Technological Concepts: Performance and Status 4. The Role of Biomass Combustion to Date: Different Contexts and Markets 5. Future Outlook and Closing Remarks Glossary bubbling fluidized bed/circulating fluidized bed…
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1. Introduction 2. Fundamentals of Gasification 3. Gasification and Gasifier Types 4. Activities Characteristic of Biomass Gasification Systems for Heat and Electricity Generation 5. Economics of Biomass Gasification for Heat and Electricity Generation 6. Constraints and Issues Affecting the…
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Full text Article biomass energy

From Dictionary of Energy
Biomass energy was utilized in 1860 to meet over 70% of the world’s total energy needs, mainly via the conventional combustion of wood fuel for heating and cooking. Biomass energy is the chemical energy content of non-fossil, energy-containing forms of carbon such as land-based and water-based…
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Key terms: renewable energy; energy policy ; renewable heat incentive Biomass is the catch-all term used to describe energy primarily generated from plant based sources rather than fossil fuels and can include: wood and wood residues (chunks, sawdust, pellets, chips) agricultural residues (straw, …
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Example supply curve for energy crops:...
1. Introduction 2. Approaches to Biomass Resource Assessment 3. Example of an Integrated Supply Curve Approach for Biomass Resource Assessment 4. Discussion of Limitations and Conceptual Differences in Biomass Resource Assessments 5. Summary and Conclusions Glossary agricultural residues Include the…
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Biomass, or biofuels, are essentially clean fuels in that they contain no sulfur and the burning of them does not increase the long-term carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels in the atmosphere, since they are the product of recent photosynthesis (note that peat is not a biofuel in this sense). This is by no…
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Biorefinery concept for production of...
1. Historical Developments 2. The “Biorefinery” Concept 3. Biomass-Derived Chemical Products 4. The Future Biorefinery Glossary biomass Material generated by living organisms; typically the cellular structure of a plant or animal or chemical products generated by the organism. biorefinery A factory…
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Full text Article Microbial Biomass Protein

From Food, Fermentation, and Micro-organisms
Although less high profile than it was half a century ago, there is still interest in the cultivation of microbes specifically as foodstuffs, rather than as agents in the production of other products, which is how we have encountered them in this book. The term ‘Single Cell Protein’ was coined to…
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