Thermochemical gasification of biomass has been identified as a possible system for producing renewable hydrogen. A continuous tubular supercritical water gasification system is under development that can be used for solution or slurry materials gasification without drying. A unique feature of this system is its ability to realize the overall high-pressure continuous reaction by operating the valves. By the use of this system, designed for temperatures up to 923.15 K and pressures up to 35 MPa, glucose, as a model compound of biomass, was gasified in supercritical water at a series of temperature and pressure during different resident times to form a product gas composed of H-2, CO, CH4, CO2, and a small amount Of C2H4 and C2H6. Glucose at low concentrations (ca. 0.1 M) can be completely gasified in 923.15 K, 25 MPa, and 3.6 min resident time and no char or tar was observed. Consequently, we adopted these conditions as baseline reaction conditions for the following glucose concentration, alkali addition and reactor tube diameter effect studies. The raw biomass feedstock of sawdust with some CMC was also gasified in this system, the gasification efficiency in excess of 95% was reached. (C) 2002 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.