Pyrolysis of tank bottom oil sludge was investigated to summarize the pyrolysis characteristics through analyzing the change of mass loss, pyrolysis gas compositions in heating process. For this propose, various approaches including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), CNHS/O elemental analysis, electrically heated fixed bed quartz reactor coupled with Vario Plus emission monitoring system, and oil-gas evaluation workstation (OGE-II) equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) were used. The pyrolysis reaction is significant in the range of 473-773 K where multi-peak DTG curves can be gained. Higher heating rate increases the carbon (C) and sulfur (S) contents but decreases hydrogen (H) content in solid residues. The major gaseous products excluding N-2 are CHs (Hydrocarbons), CO2, H-2, CO. The yield of CHs is significant in the range of 600-723 K. Higher heating rate causes the peak intensity of CHs evolution to increase and the CHs evolution to move towards a high-temperature region. Around 80% of total organic carbon content (TOC) in oil sludge can be converted into CHs in pyrolysis process. The CHs data were used for kinetic analysis by Vyazovkin model-free iso-conversion approach. Dependences of the activation energy on the degree of conversion obtained from different methods were compared. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.