Small scale air-blown fluidized bed gasification of alfalfa and wheat straw pellets were conducted for semi-continuous solid feeding and range of operating conditions varied due to the modifications in equivalence ratio (ER) (0.20-0.35) achieved both by varying solid and air input. Alfalfa pellets displayed an improvement in several gasification variables such as gas lower heating value (similar to 4.1 MJ/Nm(3)), specific gas yield (1.66 Nm(3)/kg), cold gas efficiency (similar to 42%) and carbon conversion efficiency (similar to 72%) as ER maximized to 035 which was found optimum for this feedstock for the present course of experiments. Gasification parameters of wheat straw pellets on the other hand were characterized by a great degree of variation as the ER progressively increased. The optimum performance of this biomass was likely to achieve at ER = 0.30 when gas lower heating value and cold gas efficiency maximized to similar to 4 MJ/Nm(3) and similar to 37% respectively. Moreover, a substantial drop in tar yield (58.7 g/Nm(3)) at this ER was also indicative to the optimal thermal conversion at this point of operation. Overall, both the feedstocks presented promising alternatives for utilization into the small-scale fluidized bed gasification which is increasingly emerging as a sustainable solution towards processing lignocellulosic biomass. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.