A furnace burns biomass fuel in a combustion chamber to convert biomass to heat energy. The hot gases released as biomass fuel burns contain about 85 percent of the fuel's potential energy. A biomass-fired boiler is a more adaptable combustion technology that converts biomass to electricity, mechanical energy or heat. A boiler transfers the heat of combustion into steam. The steam output contains 60 to 85 percent of the potential energy of the fuel.
Biomass boilers supply energy at low cost for many industrial and commercial uses.
Commercial and industrial combustion facilities can burn many types of biomass fuel, including wood, agricultural residues, wood pulping liquor, and municipal solid waste. Gasification Gasification is a thermochemical process that converts biomass into a combustible gas called producer gas. Producer gas contains carbon monoxide, hydrogen, water vapor, carbon dioxide, tar vapor and ash particles. The energy in producer gas is 70 percent to 80 percent of the energy originally present in the biomass. The gas can be burned directly for space heat or drying, or it can be burned in a boiler to produce steam.