Pyrolysis of various forms of biomass could convert this primary energy source into valuable liquid or gaseous fuels or chemicals. In this study a CDS 2000 Pyroprobe, with a Bio-Rad FTS165 FTIR detector are used to measure yields of 3 products and 7 families of products from corn cobs pyrolysis at temperatures up to 900 degrees C using a wide range of heating rates. An analytical semi-empirical model is then used to approximately represent these results using a relatively small number of parameters. The compact representation can be used in applications to conveniently extrapolate and interpolate these results to other temperatures and heating rates. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.