The wood gasification process poses serious concerns about the risk of explosion. The design of prevention and mitigation measures requires the knowledge of safety parameters, such as the maximum explosion pressure, the maximum rate of pressure rise and the gas deflagration index, K-G, at standard ambient temperature (25 degrees C) and pressure (1 bar) conditions. However, the analysis at specific process conditions is strongly recommended, as the explosion behavior of gas mixtures may be completely different. In the work presented in this paper, the explosion behavior of mixtures with composition representative of wood chip-derived syngas (CO/H-2/CH4/CO2/N-2 mixtures with and without H2O) was experimentally studied in a closed combustion chamber. Experiments were run at two temperatures, 300 degrees C and 10 degrees C, and at atmospheric pressure. Test conditions were requested by the safety engineering designer of an existing industrial-scale wood gasification plant. In order to identify the specific fuel air ratios to be analyzed, thus reducing the number of experimental tests, a preliminary thermo-kinetic study was performed. Results have shown that the mixtures investigated can be classified as low-reactivity mixtures, the higher value of K-G found (similar to 36 bar m/s) being much lower than the K-G value of methane (55 bar m/s @ 25 degrees C). (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.