It is generally acknowledged that the continuous production of rich hydrogen is made by using a sequential biomass pyrolysis reactor which combines the pyrolysis of rice husks with the secondary decomposition of gaseous intermediate. Fe/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation. The result shows that Fe/gamma-Al2O3 could fully convert biomass pyrolysis volatile into gaseous products, such as H-2, CH4, CO etc. And the reaction activities of the catalysts are greatly influenced by the calcination temperature of catalysts, the secondary catalytic pyrolysis temperature and Fe/Al mass ratio. The catalyst is characterized by temperature programmed revification (TPR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scan electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetry(TG). The result indicates that the activity centre of Fe/gamma-Al2O3 is Fe2+ and Fe-0. In brief, the main processes are that large molecule organics in bio-oil decompose into gaseous products, meanwhile the gases are catalytic reformation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.