The thermal behavior of five biomass species was investigated using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The investigation showed that the hemi-cellulose in fruit vegetable biomass differed from that in wood biomass. The cellulose in different materials except Chinese cabbage presented coincident properties while different lignin varied greatly because of various monomers. The thermogravimetric curve overlap ratio was applied to evaluate the simulation of biomass by hemi-cellulose, cellulose and lignin. The results indicated that biomass pyrolysis characteristics could be well simulated by its components and the results from the overlap ratio were compared with the content derived from chemical separation. The temperature was programmed to divide each phase of biomass pyrolysis to investigate further components ratio in biomass mass loss process. The results suggested that fruit vegetable biomass contained more hemi-cellulose and less lignin than wood biomass, and poplar wood contained the largest amount of cellulose. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.