Biomass includes a wide range of materials, including energy crops such as switch grass and agricultural all sources such as corn husks, wood pellets, lumbering and timbering wastes, yard wastes, construction and demolition waste, and bio-solids such as sewage sludge. Gasification helps recover the energy locked in these materials and can convert biomass to electricity and products, such as ethanol, methanol, fuels, and fertilizers.

Biomass gasification plants differ somewhat from the large-scale gasification processes typically used in major industrial facilities such as power plants, refineries, and chemical plants, although the differing types of gasification can easily be combined.