Bioenergy technologies use renewable biomass resources to produce an array of energy related products including electricity, liquid, solid, and gaseous fuels, heat, chemicals, and other materials.

Bioenergy ranks second (to hydropower) in renewable primary energy production and accounts for three percent of the primary energy production in the United States.

Biomass offers tremendous opportunities to use domestic and sustainable resources to provide fuel, power, and chemical needs from plants and plant-derived materials; that is, if such production does not interfere with the eating needs of global populations.

The term biomass means any plant derived organic matter available on a renewable basis, including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, animal wastes, municipal wastes, and other waste materials.