The CO2 reforming of methane (in coke oven gas) on the coal char catalyst was performed in a fixed bed reactor at temperatures between 800 and 1200 degrees C under normal pressure. The effects of the coal char catalyst pretreatment and the ratio of CO2/CH4 were studied. Experimental results showed that the coal char was an effective catalyst for production of syngas, and addition of CO2 did not enhance the CH4 reforming to H-2. It was also found that the product gas ratio of H-2/CO is strongly influenced by the feed ratio of CO2/CH4. The modified coal char catalyst was more active during the CO2-CH4 reforming than the coal char catalyst based on the catalyst volume, furthermore the modified catalyst exhibited high activity in CO2-CH4 reforming to syngas. The conversion of methane can be divided into two stages. In the first stage, the conversion of CH4 gradually decreased. In the second stage, the conversion of methane maintained nearly constant. The conversion of CO2 decreased slightly during the overall reactions in CO2-CH4 reforming. The coal char catalyst is a highly promising catalyst for the CO2 reforming of methane to syngas. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.