Kinetics characteristics of petroleum coke gasification with CO2 at 1248-1323 K and 0.1. MPa were studied using a pressurized thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). It is shown that gasification rate increases with increasing conversion and then decreases after reaching a peak value around x = 0.3. The poor initial porosity is the main reason of the occurrence of maximal gasification rate. A normal distribution function model was proposed to fit the kinetics data. Results show it can describe well the variation of gasification rate at different temperatures. Relationship between the parameter r(m) in the model and temperature T obeys to the Arrhenius law. Activation energy of petroleum coke CO2 gasification is 198 kJ mol(-1) and the reaction order is 0.54-0.88 in the investigated temperature range, which are in accordance with reported data. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.