Biomass energy is one of humanity's earliest sources of energy particularly in rural areas where it is often the only accessible and affordable source of energy. Worldwide biomass ranks fourth as an energy resource, providing approximately 14% of the world's energy needs all human and industrial processes produce wastes, that is, normally unused and undesirable products of a specific process. Generation and recovery of solid wastes varies dramatically from country to country and deserves special mention. The burning velocity of pulverized biomass fuels is considerably higher than that of coals. The use of biomass fuels provides substantial benefits as far as the environment is concerned. Biomass absorbs carbon dioxide during growth, and emits it during combustion. Utilization of biomass as fuel for power production offers the advantage of a renewable and CO2-neutral fuel. Although the structural, proximate and ultimate analyses results of biomass and wastes differ considerably, some properties of the biomass samples such as the hydrogen content, the sulfur content and the ignition temperatures changed in a narrow interval. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.