The thermal degradation of tars in a chamber fed by a non-transferred plasma torch is theoretically examined in this study. The input of this reactor is a product gas coming from a gasification unit with a temperature of about 800 degrees C. According to literature, naphthalene and toluene are chosen as model compounds to represent the behaviour of their classes. According to this choice and to the data available in the literature, a reaction pathway for the thermal degradation of tars and its associated kinetics are proposed in this study. This mechanism is introduced in a CSTR model in order to check the influence of the operating parameters of the reactor on the degradation efficiency. These computations clearly show that a complete conversion of toluene (>99.9%) and an important conversion of naphthalene (96.7%) can be reached in the reactor, with concentration levels compatible with the further use of gas engines for electricity production. This theoretical study requires to be validated by comparison with experimental results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.