Feedstock variability is a crucial issue for industrialization of biomass conversion processes. Indeed, this variability may imply large differences of chemical reaction rates and products yields and therefore differences of reactors design. In this context, the present study, which is part of the French-Brazilian ANR-FINEP project AMAZON, aims at characterising the behaviours of various biomass types during torrefaction in terms of solid mass loss kinetics and volatiles release. This should enable (i) to draw conclusions regarding their use in a process and (ii) to develop predictive kinetic models valid for various biomass feedstocks. The experiments are performed on 17 biomass including different kinds of wood (French woods: beech, pine, eucalyptus, false acacia and poplar Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF); Brazilian woods: angelim, faveira, maçaramduba) and agricultural biomass (wheat straw, immature annual crop: triticale, forage grass : tall fescue and perennial herbaceous crops harvested dry in late winter: :miscanthus, switchgrass;). For study of solid mass loss kinetics, TGA experiments are performed during several hours at three final temperatures (230; 250 ; 280°C). For study of volatiles release, experiments are carried out at 250°C in a lab-scale reactor in which it is possible to close the mass balance during torrefaction of several grams of biomass. Gaseous species are continuously quantified thanks to a ?GC, and condensable species contents are measured using a GC-MS analyser. Three different kinetic behaviours can be observed depending on the species and their chemical composition, notably their hemicelluloses / xylose content. Mass loss is relatively slow for mature woods during the first hour, but then keeps on being significant even for very long durations. Initial mass loss is very sharp for the straw, the annual crop and the forage grass but then attains a plateau. Perennials and SRF/SRC exhibit the same behaviour,