Biomass is considered a renewable and cleaner energy source alternative to fossil fuels. In recent years, industrial biomass boilers have been rapidly developed and widely used in the industrial field. This work makes a review on the fuel types used in industrial biomass boilers, the fuel characteristics and the characteristics of air pollutants emitted from the combustion of industrial biomass boilers and other contents in different studies. However, the existing research still has many deficiencies. In the future, further research on biomass fuel, industrial biomass boiler combustion process and the pollutants emitted by industrial biomass boiler combustion, especially the carbonaceous aerosol emitted by industrial biomass boiler and carbonaceous aerosol optical properties still need to be made. At the same time, the potential harm of carbonaceous aerosols emitted from industrial biomass boiler sources to human health and climate change needs to be studied in depth. This review provides a scientific basis for the accurate evaluation of industrial biomass boilers and the effective prevention and control of various pollutants of industrial biomass boilers.