During the HTC reaction, water, carbon dioxide and other compounds are cleaved from the biomass. Thereby the energy density is raised significantly and the heating value is approximate to that of dry, high quality brown coal. At the same time, the macromolecular structure of the original biomass will be largely to completely destroyed. This provides a porous, brittle and in part dust-like product that is considerably easier to dry and to convert to electricity, heat or fuel than the origin biomass. This is a clear conceptual advantage for energy use compared to, for example, the burning or gasification of untreated biomass