Thermal degradation including torrefaction and pyrolysis take place in the absence of oxygen to divert chemical changes in material from combustion chemistry to biopolymer deconstruction. The resulting product(s) are a carbonaceous char (by many names such as char, biochar, biocoal, biocarbon, etc.), as well as some gases and volatile components. The distribution of components and the extent of the chemical/structure changes in a material strongly depend on the reaction conditions, however, torrefaction can improve biomass by improving the heating value, increasing the carbon concentration, decreasing water uptake and increasing biological stability, create a more friable fiber structure that increases throughput and decreases specific energy consumption during size reduction, and can enhance the thermal stability of volatile-rich feedstock, among others. During biomass torrefaction, the least thermally stable constituents such as saps, resins, and other extractives degrade first with increasing temperature, followed by hemicellulose sugars in the range of 200-240C. This is followed by broad temperature regions over which cellulose and lignin components degrade over, leaving the most thermally recalcitrant carbon structures and inorganics that were present.