Sustainable cities require the generation of energy from waste that cannot be economically reused or recycled. This study focuses on slow pyrolysis that can generate a high yield of char along with liquid and gas products from waste. Char is high in energy content, storable and transportable with low cost so that it can be used as an intermediate medium for high efficiency energy conversion. Pre-processed municipal waste pellets, wood and grass were pyrolysed in a batch type reactor for a final temperature ranging from 350 to 700 degrees C, and the char products were characterized. The mass yields of char ranged from 55 to 20% for the tested temperature range, recovering 70-30% of energy and 62-30% of carbon in the raw material. The gross calorific value of char was 30 3 5 MJ kg(-1) on a dry ash free basis. The ash content of raw materials was a key parameter for the quality of char, since its proportion increased by 2-4 times in char depending on the mass yield. A significant amount of volatile metals such as Hg, As and Ph in the waste sample was evaporated at 500 degrees C. Therefore, evaporation of volatile metals was another important parameter in determining the pyrolysis temperature and fuel residence time. The char did not show significant morphological change in the tested range of temperatures. It was concluded that slow pyrolysis of waste for char production should be performed below 500 degrees C in order to increase the energy yield and also to reduce the evaporation of heavy metals. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.