A new concept that a heat recovery system from blast furnace (BF) slag which would generate hydrogen-rich gas was proposed and a continuous moving-bed biomass gasification reactor was designed to evaluate the feasibility. The influences of temperature and particle size of BF slag on gasification product distribution and gas characterization were discussed. The results show that BF slag demonstrated better catalytic performance in improving tar cracking, enhancing char gasification and reforming of hydrocarbons; higher BF slag temperature and smaller particles size can produce more light gases, less char and condensate; as temperature of BF slag being 1200 degrees C and its size below 2 mm, gas yield and H-2 content achieved the maximum being 1.28 N m(3)/kg and 46.54%, respectively. Crown Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.