This paper reports the significant enhancement of hydrogen production during the gasification of Victorian brown coal with steam using iron as a catalyst. Iron was loaded into the acid-washed Loy Yang brown coal using ferric chloride aqueous solution. Gasification experiments were carried out using a quartz reactor at a fast particle heating rate. The yield of char was determined by directly weighing the reactor before and after each experiment. Gases were analysed using a GC with dual columns. The overall gasification rate of a char increases greatly in the presence of iron. The transformation of iron species during pyrolysis and gasification was examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that both reduced-iron (alpha-Fe and gamma-Fe) and magnetite (Fe3O4) highly dispersed in a char can catalyse the gasification of the char with steam. In particular, the char from iron-loaded coal samples gives much higher yields of H-2 than a char from the acid-washed coal under similar conditions. The mechanism for the enhancement of hydrogen production in the presence of iron is discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.