Calcined egg shell (CES) shows porous structure and exhibits alkaline property, which is expected to be applied for the adsorption and decomposition of biomass-derived tar. In this research, steam reforming of tar derived from cedar wood over CES was firstly investigated in a fixed bed reactor and found that CES had high catalytic activity for steam reforming of tar to produce hydrogen-rich gas. Then, iron, nickel, cobalt and copper were loaded on CES, more syngas especially hydrogen gas was produced. Among them, copper loaded CES exhibited more enhanced catalytic activity. The optimum Cu loading amount on CES was found to be 1-2 wt%, which resulted in the most amount of syngas and exhibited excellent reusability. Copyright (C) 2016, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.