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What is biomass? This is how the controversial energy source works

By Laurens Arends · updated 05-10-2026

Biomass is organic material that is used to produce heat, electricity, biogas or biofuel. According to the CBS in 2025, 34% of all Dutch renewable energy came from biomass. Whether biomass is actually sustainable depends heavily on the raw material and the entire production chain.

Biomass as a sustainable energy source in the Neth…Biomass energy comes from, among other things, wood, pruning waste, organic waste, sewage sludge, manure, vegetable oil and biological waste.Question marks over biomass energy: is bio…This question is difficult to answer, because biomass is a very broad concept.Is biomass energy bad energy, then?Biomass energy is not inherently good or bad.

Biomass as a sustainable energy source in the Netherlands

Biomass energy comes from, among other things, wood, pruning waste, organic waste, sewage sludge, manure, vegetable oil and biological waste. The material can be burned, digested or converted into a liquid fuel. A biomass power plant can use it to produce electricity or heat. A digester produces biogas, which after purification can be added to the gas grid as green gas.

The European Union counts biomass as renewable energy under certain conditions. That does not mean that every application is automatically climate-neutral. The revised European Renewable Energy Directive, which has applied since November 2023, therefore sets requirements for, among other things, origin, land use and greenhouse gas savings.

Biomass from primary forests, old-growth forests, peatlands and areas with high biodiversity may not count towards the European sustainability targets. Member states must also use wood according to the cascading principle: first for high-quality materials, and only then for energy.

Biomass in the Netherlands and the world

According to the provisional CBS figures from 2026, the Netherlands used about 401 petajoules of renewable energy in 2025. Of this, 137 petajoules came from biomass. Biomass therefore accounted for 34% of renewable energy and 7,8% of total Dutch gross final energy consumption. Liquid biofuels for transport in particular have become more important compared with five years ago.

Application of biomass	Consumption in 2025	Share within biomass
Liquid biofuels	57,9 PJ	42,2%
Biomass boilers at companies	21,3 PJ	15,5%
Biogenic part of waste incineration	18,0 PJ	13,1%
Wood and charcoal in households	16,2 PJ	11,8%
Co-firing in power plants	14,8 PJ	10,8%
Biogas	9,0 PJ	6,6%

Source: own calculation using the CBS StatLine figures for 2025, published on 19 June 2026. In waste incineration, only the biodegradable part counts as biomass.

In 2024, CBS distinguished twelve waste incineration plants, 49 bio-CHP installations at companies and around seventy sewage treatment plants that made useful use of biogas. In addition, there are biomass boilers, manure digesters and about one million wood-fired installations in households.

A small-scale application is the wood chip boiler at Diergaarde Blijdorp. According to the zoo, this boiler has a capacity of 350 kW and uses about 1.500 m³ of wood chips per year. This is residual wood from sawmills and pruning wood from Rotterdam.

Biomass also remains important worldwide. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA, 2024), 16 exajoules of modern solid biomass were used in 2023, equal to 3,5% of global final energy consumption. In addition, 19 exajoules of traditional biomass were used for cooking and heating. This often involves simple wood fires with low efficiency and a lot of air pollution.

Question marks over biomass energy: is biomass sustainable?

This question is difficult to answer, because biomass is a very broad concept. Certain forms of biomass energy are in any case sustainable: they use energy that would otherwise be lost and thus help to avoid grey energy. Digesting existing sewage sludge is something different from felling a mature tree, pressing it into pellets and burning it. You therefore have to look at the raw material, the alternative for that raw material, the processing, the transport, the efficiency and the time needed to capture emitted CO₂ again.

A synthesis of life cycle analyses by the IPCC gives a median of 230 grams of CO₂ equivalent per kWh for electricity from dedicated biomass crops. The range found runs from 130 to 420 grams, precisely because biomass energy is a very broad concept. Wind and solar energy in any case come out much lower. It is therefore more sustainable to invest in wind and solar energy than in biomass energy.

Energy source	Median	Range
Onshore wind	11 g CO₂-eq/kWh	7 to 56
Utility-scale solar panels	48 g CO₂-eq/kWh	18 to 180
Biomass for electricity	230 g CO₂-eq/kWh	130 to 420
Natural gas power plant	490 g CO₂-eq/kWh	410 to 650
Coal-fired power plant	820 g CO₂-eq/kWh	740 to 910

Source: IPCC, Annex III (2014). The figures are international life cycle analyses and not measurements of a single Dutch installation.

Burning wood directly emits a lot of CO₂

During combustion, the carbon from wood immediately enters the air as CO₂. The IPCC default factors (2006) show that wood emits about 112 kilograms of CO₂ per gigajoule at the chimney per unit of fuel energy. For natural gas this is 56,1 kilograms and for bituminous coal about 94,6 kilograms per gigajoule. The CO₂ from wood can be absorbed again by growing plants, provided that nature is given the chance to do so.

A felled tree can be replaced, but a young sapling contains much less carbon than the mature tree that was burned. Moreover, without the extra felling, the original forest might have continued to absorb carbon for years. A literature review by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (2014) concluded that extra wood harvesting for energy usually leads to more CO₂ in the atmosphere in the short term than the fossil alternative.

Depending on the tree species, harvest intensity, growth, power plant and replaced fuel, the payback time of this carbon debt can range from a few decades to centuries. In general, extra wood harvesting is therefore not a sustainable choice. Wood residues from, for example, furniture production can be. A JRC study from 2021 does warn, however, that the intensive removal of dead wood and harvest residues can be harmful to soils and biodiversity.

Biogas can be useful, but does not solve the manure problem

Digestion of manure, sewage sludge and wet waste streams can capture methane that would otherwise simply end up in the atmosphere. The climate benefit does depend on leak-tight installations and closed storage. In practice, we see a lot of methane leaks. According to IEA Bioenergy (2017), the measured methane leaks vary greatly.

Open digestate storage, engines, pressure relief valves and occasional large leaks are important sources of methane leaks. Moreover, manure digestion does not make nitrogen and phosphate disappear. These minerals largely remain behind in the digestate. Digestion therefore produces energy and can limit methane emissions, but does not automatically reduce the Dutch manure surplus.

Wood burning causes air pollution

Biomass power plants do work more cleanly than private wood burning. Large biomass power plants use filters and must meet emission standards. That does not completely prevent emissions. Wood burning by households is a major local source of particulate matter.

According to the Compendium voor de Leefomgeving (2026), wood burning by consumers caused 24% of Dutch PM2,5 emissions in 2024. Wood burning was also responsible for 64% of domestic emissions of the carcinogenic benzo(a)pyrene. A modern pellet stove is cleaner than an open fireplace, but less clean than a full-scale biomass power plant.

Biomass: assessing the pros and cons per energy source

According to the JRC and the IPCC, the climate performance of biomass depends not only on what you burn. The origin, the alternative for the raw material, changes in soil and forest stock, methane leaks, transport, installation efficiency and missed material applications also count. If you want to assess the pros and cons of biomass, you have to look specifically at the energy source.

Energy source	Advantages	Disadvantages
Digesting sewage sludge, organic waste and unavoidable wet waste	Supplies biogas from waste that has to be processed anyway. The climate benefit can be large if this prevents methane emissions and replaces fossil gas.	Methane leaks during digestion, storage and processing can cancel out part of the climate benefit. The digestate still contains nitrogen and phosphate and may also contain contaminants.
Using local residual wood for efficient heat or CHP	Can replace fossil fuel if it concerns unavoidable residual wood without a better material application. With combined heat and power, both electricity and usable heat are produced.	Combustion directly releases CO₂, particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. Residual wood might also have been able to store carbon for longer or could first have been used as material.
Burning harvest residues and thinning wood	Residual streams can supply energy without an energy crop having to be grown specially for it. This can be beneficial if the residues would otherwise decompose quickly or remain unused.	Removing harvest residues and thinning wood can extract nutrients and organic carbon from the soil. Dead wood and thin trees also have value for biodiversity and future carbon storage.
Harvesting whole tree trunks specifically for energy	Wood can be stored and can supply heat and electricity on demand. With sustainable forest management, forest can grow again after the harvest.	Combustion causes immediate CO₂ emissions, while new trees often need decades to capture that carbon again.
Growing food crops for biofuel	Supplies a liquid fuel that can partly replace fossil petrol or diesel. Existing vehicles and infrastructure can use certain biofuels directly or after limited adaptation.	Cultivation can compete with food production and requires land, water, fertiliser and pesticides. Deforestation for agriculture can greatly reduce the climate benefit or make it disappear completely.
Burning wood in a home	Dry residual wood can supply heat locally and reduce the use of natural gas. Wood can also be stored and does not depend on the moment when sun or wind is available.	Wood stoves and open fireplaces cause relatively large amounts of particulate matter, soot and harmful hydrocarbons. Combustion is usually less efficient and less easy to clean than in a large installation. Here too, the stored CO₂ is released immediately.

Is biomass energy bad energy, then?

Biomass energy is not inherently good or bad. Biogas from sewage sludge, waste water or carefully processed manure can avoid fossil energy and methane emissions. Clean residual wood without a higher-value destination can also be used efficiently for industrial heat. It becomes more difficult to call biomass sustainable when entire forests are felled, carbon-rich soils are disturbed or energy crops displace food crops.

The best approach is therefore: prevent waste, use biomass first as material, reuse the material and only recover energy at the end of its life. And deploy the limited sustainable biomass mainly where direct electrification with wind, sun or a heat pump is not readily possible.

Frequently asked questions about biomass energy

What is biomass energy?

Biomass energy is heat, electricity or fuel made from organic material. Examples are wood, organic waste, sewage sludge, manure, agricultural residues and vegetable oils. The energy is released through combustion, digestion or gasification. The European Union counts biomass as renewable energy under certain conditions, but that does not mean that every application is climate-neutral.

What are the pros and cons of biomass?

One advantage of biomass is that the raw material can be stored and can supply energy on demand. Digestion of unavoidable waste can also capture methane, while local residual wood can replace fossil fuel. On the other hand, there are direct CO₂ emissions, air pollution, methane leaks and possible competition with food, nature and material use. The final balance differs greatly per raw material and application.

Is biomass sustainable?

Biomass can be sustainable, but is not automatically so. The use of unavoidable residual streams is usually easier to defend than felling trees or growing food crops specifically for energy. With wood, you also have to take into account the carbon that the forest could still have captured without harvesting and the time new trees need to compensate for the emissions. Meeting the European sustainability criteria does not mean that the emissions are immediately climate-neutral.

How does a biomass power plant work?

In a biomass power plant, organic material is usually burned in a boiler. The heat released produces steam, with which a turbine and generator can produce electricity. The usable residual heat can go to companies or a heat network. Flue gas cleaning limits particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, among other things, but does not prevent CO₂ emissions. Installations that digest wet biomass first produce biogas, which is then burned in a combined heat and power installation or upgraded to green gas.

Does wood automatically become CO₂-neutral if new trees are planted?

No. New trees can eventually absorb the emitted CO₂ again, but that takes years to centuries.

Can hydrogen replace biomass?

In time, hydrogen can replace certain biofuels and industrial applications, but it is not a direct energy source. Green hydrogen requires a lot of renewable electricity and a lot of energy is lost in the conversion. Direct use of electricity therefore remains more efficient where that is technically possible.

Can the Netherlands become self-sufficient with biomass?

No. Biomass yielded 137 PJ in 2025, compared with total gross final energy consumption of 1.767 PJ. In 2022, the Dutch government concluded that domestic availability is insufficient to meet expected demand and that imports will remain necessary.

Do wood pellets at home count as sustainable energy?

Wood pellets officially count as biomass and can be renewable under certain conditions. That does not automatically make a pellet stove sustainable: the origin of the wood, the efficiency, the carbon debt and the emission of particulate matter remain important disadvantages of this biomass energy.

Does a biomass power plant cause air pollution?

Combustion can produce particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and other substances. Large installations do have to clean the flue gases.

Why do scientific findings on biomass vary so widely?

Studies use different raw materials, time horizons and reference situations. One study may compare wood with coal, while another study compares wood with a forest that continues to grow without felling. Transport, energy efficiency, soil carbon, methane leaks and indirect land use are also not always taken into account in the same way.