Biomass is a promising sustainable energy source. A tar-free fuel gas can be obtained in a properly designed biomass gasification process. In the current study, a tar-free biomass gasification process by air was proposed. This concept was demonstrated on a lab-scale fluidized bed using sawdust under autothermic conditions. This lab-scale model gasifier combined two individual regions of pyrolysis, gasification, and combustion of biomass in one reactor, in which the primary air stream and the biomass feedstock were introduced into the gasifier from the bottom and the top of the gasifier respectively to prevent the biomass pyrolysis product from burning out. The biomass was initially pyrolyzed and the produced char was partially gasified in the upper reduction region of the reactor, and further, char residue was combusted at the bottom region of the reactor in an oxidization atmosphere. An assisting fuel gas and second air were injected into the upper region of the reactor to maintain elevated temperature. The tar in the flue gas entered the upper region of the reactor and was decomposed under the elevated temperature and certain residence time. This study indicated that under the optimum operating conditions, a fuel gas could be produced with a production rate of about 3.0 Nm(3)/kg biomass and heating value of about 5000 kJ/Nm(3). The concentration of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane in the fuel gas produced were 9.27%, 9.25% and 4.21%, respectively. The tar formation could be efficiently controlled below 10 mg/Nm(3). The system carbon conversion and cold gasification efficiency reached above 87.1% and 56.9%, respectively. In addition, the investigation of energy balance for the scale-up of the proposed biomass gasification process showed that the heat loss could be recovered by approximately 23% of total energy input. Thus, partial fuel gas that was produced could be re-circulated and used to meet need of energy input to maintain the elevated temperature at the upper region of reactor for tar decomposition. It was predicted the heating value of product fuel gas would be 8000 kJ/Nm(3) if the system was scaled up. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.