Bio-oil from the fast pyrolysis of biomass can be converted to solid carbon materials, chemicals and syngas by various thermochemical conversion methods. As a first step in all of these processes, bio-oil undergoes drastic components changes due to its exposure to the elevated temperature. Understanding the effects of heating rate on bio-oil transformation during its pyrolysis is therefore crucial for effective utilization of bio-oil. In this study, a bio-oil sample produced from the fast pyrolysis of rice husk at 500 degrees C was pyrolyzed in a fixed-bed reactor at temperatures between 300 and 800 degrees C at three different heating rates: fast (approximate to 200 degrees C/s), medium (approximate to 20 degrees C/s), and slow (approximate to 0.33 degrees C/s). In addition to the quantification of coke and tar yields, the tar was characterized with an ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence spectroscopy, a gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) and a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR MS). Our results indicate that slow heating rates promote polymerization of bio-oil components, particularly at low temperatures (< 500 degrees C), resulting in higher primary coke yields than that of the fast heating rates. Decomposition reaction was found to be pronounced at fast heating rates, causing decreases in the tar yields and abundance of light compounds. The increases in the yields of the secondary coke, the formations of more condensed aromatic structures and macromolecules (m/ > 500) were also promoted at fast heating rates via the more intense secondary reactions.