1. Background and issues

Biomass is organic matter of plant, animal, bacterial or fungal origin that can be used directly as energy. A raw material used from Antiquity to the 19th century, for example as a pigment for dyes and cosmetics, it was replaced by coal from the 1860s onwards, thanks to the technological advances of the time and the emergence of coal industries offering the possibility of synthesizing chemicals from this carbon reserve. In the 1930s, the transition to petroleum began with the development of steam cracking technology. In addition, petroleum offered a number of advantages, such as ease of extraction and distribution, and a high calorific value. It was the ever-increasing demand for fuels, polymers and plastic materials, particularly with the development of means of transport and the demand for rubber during the Second World War, that led governments to invest massively in the petrochemicals...