A shock tube technique was employed to study the thermal decomposition of cellulose in an inert argon gas under the conditions of high temperature, high heating rate, and short reaction times. The influence of temperature and reaction times on product yields and their distribution were investigated. A clean, tar and char free gas consisting mainly of CO, CO2, C2H2, C2H4 and CH4 were produced throughout the course of this investigation. A mass conversion of cellulose to gas exceeding 90 wt% has been realized between the temperatures 700 and 2200-degrees-C for the reaction times examined. Carbon monoxide is the major product and attains a yield in excess of 65 wt% for temperatures above 1300-degrees-C. Global kinetic parameters for the decomposition of cellulose and its principal gas products were obtained by fitting the experimental data to a single, first order kinetic model. The energy of activation for the decomposition of cellulose was found to be 130.5 kJ/mol. The material balances made for the total mass, carbon and oxygen are good.