A supercritical water reactor with throughput of 10 kg/h was set up, which was operated with continuous feeding of coal water slurry. The effects of reaction temperature (500-650 degrees C), pressure (20.0-30.0 MPa), Ca/C molar ratio (0-0.45) and O/C molar ratio (0-0.35) on the hydrogen generation characteristics were investigated. It is found that there is a notable increase in the hydrogen content and yield with the increase of reaction temperature. The hydrogen yield increases from 24.67 ml/g to 135.73 ml/g when the temperature increases from 500 degrees C to 650 degrees C. The contents of CO(2) in gas product decrease, while that of hydrogen increases with the increase of Ca/C molar ratio. At Ca/C molar ratio of 0.45, nearly all CO(2) is fixed. Correspondingly, the content of hydrogen in gas is 73.29%, and the yield of hydrogen is 348.30 ml/g compared to 135.42 ml/g in the absent of CaO. Moreover, both of CaO and KOH catalyze gasification and water-shift reaction. The formation of hydrogen and the carbon gasification efficiency are improved by the added H(2)O(2) when O/C ratio is less than 0.3. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.