In this study, significant effects of ionic catalysis on the formation of H(2) and CO during the steam gasification process of cellulose are revealed. The energy of the C-H bonds of cellulose can be remarkably reduced by Na(+) and OH(-) ions produced by the dissociation of NaOH, enabling dehydrogenation of cellulose at low temperature. Dehydrogenation of cellulose is evidently affected by the concentration of Na(+) and OH- ions that cellulose can come into contact with. Higher concentrations of Na+ and OH(-) ions can reduce the initial dehydrogenation temperature of cellulose to lower than 403 K. The production of CO increases after this remarkable dehydrogenation of cellulose, which indicates that the C-O bonds of cellulose are prone to forming CO by pyrolysis. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.