The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has been actively involved in development of biomass gasifier system for thermal and power generation use. Though the basic science of gasification is well established, there have not many efforts in the past on product development. By continuous interaction with users, silk experts and consultants, TERI could able to develop a gasifier based silk reeling oven. A major thrust on this development work was to evolve marketable product by continued efforts to gain an insight of the actual process and user feedback through an extended presence and interaction at field level, and then translating this experience in product design. The present paper gives a summary of design, development and testing of gasifier based cottage basin system for cocoon cooking in silk reeling industry in order to achieve higher fuel efficiency and increase productivity of the process. The paper describes in detail the approach of different technology development stages, its testing both at laboratory and field and economic viability of the system. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.