Five catalysts were evaluated for removal of tar components in high temperature fuel gas cleaning. 1-Methylnaphthalene was chosen as a model of the tar components. The NiMo catalyst having the highest surface area exhibited the highest activity of tar removal among the five catalysts. The effects of reaction temperature and space velocity on tar removal were studied in the range of 250-650 degrees C and 3000-9000 h(-1), respectively. A lumped kinetic model was developed to describe the removal process. A sequential method to estimate the rate constants in the lumped kinetic model was adopted, which greatly simplifies the data treatments. Kinetic constants and activation energies were determined by a nonlinear regression program. The results showed that the predicted yields were very close to the experimental ones. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.