Tar is the most undesirable contaminant of producer gas. Production of tar-free gas from uncarbonized biomass seems to be rather elusive, and removing tar from the gas remains a daunting task requiring bulky, expensive equipment and considerable operational effort. A new multi-stage reactor design has been developed in order to separate the flaming-pyrolysis zone from the reduction zone. Tar vapors generated in the first zone are burned or cracked to simple molecules by high temperature in the second zone. Data obtained from experimental tests show that the two-stage reactor has improved gas quality and conversion efficiency. The tar content of the gas is about 40 times less than that obtained with a single-stage reactor under similar operating conditions.