Like biofuel, biomass is material derived from recently-deceased lifeforms. As such, biomass is a renewable source of material for producing energy or for use in industrial processes. Some plastics can be made from biomass.
Typically, biomass is burnt to produce energy and is considered
carbon-neutral, as if left to decay normally it would produce gases such as methane. So burning it, which releases
carbon into the atmosphere, can be seen as another process that produces the same end result as its natural decay would have done.
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