A series of metal oxides were investigated for up-grading the quality of the product gas from peat pyrolysis. The designed test rig pyrolysed brown peat in a nitrogen atmosphere at 550degreesC. This resulted in 35.5 wt% of the carbon present in the peat being converted to a volatile fraction. The volatile fraction was transferred to a secondary catalytic reforming reactor, at 800degreesC, which was located downstream from the gasifier. The thermal effect alone of the second reactor resulted in an increase in the CO, CO2 and CH4 content of the volatile fraction, a synthesis gas ratio of 0.75 and a HHV of 26.5 MJ kg(-1). A selection of metal oxides (Al2O3, SiO2, ZrO2, TiO2) and MOR1 investigated in the secondary reactor at 800degreesC showed an increase in the quality of the product gas. Notably TiO2 increased the conversion of the hydrocarbons present in the gas stream to 79.5%, resulting in a synthesis gas ratio of 2.22 and increased the HHV by 71.5 MJ kg(-1).