Thermochemical gasification of biomass through the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) has high gasification efficiency at lower temperatures and can deal directly with wet biomass without drying. Besides, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) appear to be an important technology in the future as they can operate at a high efficiency. Therefore, the combination of biomass gasification through supercritical water with SOFC represents one of the most potential applications for highly efficient utilization of biomass. In this paper, the composition of syngas was adopted for SOFC operation based on the thermochemical gasification of biomass through the supercritical water. The volume fraction of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, and carbon dioxide was 42%, 1%, 13%, 44% respectively. A Ni/Al2O3 cermet-supported tubular SOFC single cell assembled by thermal spray was adopted in this study. The influence of biomass syngas on the performance of single cell was investigated. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.