Biomass gasification, conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible gas by partial combustion, is a prominent technology for the production of hydrogen from biomass. The concentration of hydrogen in the gas generated from gasification depends mainly upon moisture content, type and composition of biomass, operating conditions and configuration of the biomass gasifier. The potential of production of hydrogen from wood waste by applying downdraft gasification technology is investigated. An experimental study is carried out using an Imbert downdraft biomass gasifier covering a wide range of operating parameters. The producer gas generated in the downdraft gasifier is analyzed using a gas chromatograph (NUCON 5765) with thermal conductivity detector (TCD). The effects of air flow rate and moisture content on the quality of producer gas are studied by performing experiments. The performance of the biomass gasifier is evaluated in terms of equivalence ratio, composition of producer gas, and rate of hydrogen production. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.