The aim of the present paper is to show that the image furnace is an efficient laboratory device for studying fundamental aspects of high temperature reactions involving a solid. The basic principle relies of solid heating by a concentrated radiation in very clean conditions. The available heat flux densities can be quantitatively controlled inside very large domains, which are quite similar as those encountered in usual pilot plant reactors. The image furnace qualities are experimentally studied in the particular case of biomass thermal conversion. Many results have been already published in the field of pyrolysis reactions. The present paper reports its ability to study also basic reactions of char steam gasification and of catalytic (olivine) cracking of vapours produced by biomass thermal degradation. These three types of reactions (decomposition of a solid; reaction of a gas with a solid; interaction of a vapour with a catalyst) can be studied independently from each other and in the same heat flux densities conditions. The results can be efficiently used for further worthwhile modelling of biomass gasifiers. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.