A comparative study on the pyrolysis kinetics of moso bamboo has been conducted in a conventional thermogravimetric analyzer and a microwave thermogravimetric analyzer respectively. The effect of heating rate on the pyrolysis process was also discussed. The results showed that both the maximum and average reaction rates increased with the heating rate increasing. The values of activation energy increased from 58.30 to 84.22 kJ/mol with the heating rate decreasing from 135 to 60 degrees C/min during conventional pyrolysis. The value of activation energy was 24.5 kJ/mol for microwave pyrolysis, much lower than that for conventional pyrolysis at a similar heating rate of 160 degrees C/min. The pyrolysis of moso bamboo exhibited a kinetic compensation effect. The low activation energy obtained under microwave irradiation suggests that microwaves heating would be a promising method for biomass pyrolysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.