Fuel staging cyclone gasification of wood powder was studied in a cyclone gasifier using air as the gasifying medium. A part of fuel was fed into the upper part of the gasifier, where main part of oxidation reactions took place. Another part of fuel was fed into the lower part of the gasifier. The high temperature flue gas and particles in the upper part of the gasifier were forwarded into the lower part of the gasifier to provide endothermic heat for fuel pyrolysis and reduction reactions. The influences of fuel staging, the equivalence ratio and fuel distribution on temperature profiles, composition, lower heating value and tar content of the produced gas, energy transformation including carbon conversion and cold gasification efficiency, were investigated in this study. The optimum range of equivalence ratio is 0.26-0.29 and the staged fuel ratio is not more than 20%. The lower heating value of the produced gas, the fuel gas production and the tar content are 5.36-5.77 MJ/Nm(3), 1.70-1.84 Nm(3)/kg and 2.15-2.39 g/Nm(3), respectively. While the cold gas efficiency is about 61%. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.