The term "biomass fuel" is a broad term that encompasses all leaves, roots, seeds, and stalks of all plants as well as animal waste. Anything that can burn and decompose can be a biomass fuel, or also called biofuel. Although crude oil is not considered biomass, but it once was millions of years ago.
The wood used to build a campfire is biomass fuel. The idea of using biomass as fuel to create energy to run our homes and cars isn't new. It's been around for a long time, but until gasoline went to four bucks a gallon and utility bills went through the roof, nobody seemed too interested in developing the technology into a practical and financially feasible substitute for fossil fuel. But biomass fuel is an idea whose time has come.
You hear now about a grass that grows in Africa being used to create energy or about corn grown in America being used to create energy. You hear about methane gas that's a natural byproduct of landfills being captured and turned into usable energy. And you haven't heard the end of these ideas and others like them, either.
Burning fossil fuel (oil, gas, coal) is easy, but it's quickly becoming far too expensive, and the problem is that there's a limited supply of all fossil fuels. The earth gives these fuels up after men drill or mine into the earth, but there's no more being made. When what's here is gone, it will be millions and millions of years before there is more. So you see the problem.
But biomass is a renewable resource, unlike fossil fuel. If we use grass or corn today, next year there will be more grass or corn because we can produce them easily. Another good thing about using these biofuels is that they be grown at the backyard like what our ancestors have done before. Landfills keep getting bigger and bigger, and the gas that could be harnessed and used has been ignored - until now. Yes, biomass fuel is an idea whose time has come!