BACKGROUNDThe depletion of fossil fuels and the increasing demands for clean energy, make biomass energy a promising sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Biomass gasification is a promising pathway for producing gas and other valuable products using biomass materials (wood residue, agricultural waste, bagasse, etc.). RESULTSThe tar cracking and char conversion increased slowly at lower temperatures (750-800 degrees C) and rapidly at higher temperatures (800-900 degrees C). The results also indicated that a reduction in the biomass particle size leads to a slight improvement in the gasification characterstics. With increasing steam-biomass ratio, gas yield increased while the yield of tar and char showed an opposite trend. CONCLUSIONIncreasing temperature and steam introduction significantly promoted tar destruction and gas production. In terms of catalytic activity, both catalysts showed good performance regarding the destruction of tars but dolomite was more active than olivine. (c) 2018 Society of Chemical Industry