Low temperature pyrolysis and gasification has been investigated based on the chemical looping combustion (CLC), where insufficient amount of lattice oxygen was reacted with hydrocarbons. Metal oxides such as nickel oxide, iron oxide and titanium oxide were used as lattice oxygen source and were coated on silica gel or porous aluminum. Single column reactor was used for experiments and 36.1 mmol of polyethylene was dropped to the column whose temperature was ranged from 693 to 1073 K. For the pyrolysis, hydrogen yield was 100% of polyethylene contained hydrogen, while methane, CO and CO2 were minor products and almost half of the supplied carbon was deposited on the particle surface. On the other hand, for the steam gasification, 2-3 mol of the hydrogen was generated from 1 mol of carbon and almost no carbon deposition was observed. It is found that no wax and heavy tar was observed in the exhaust. Therefore, the lattice oxygen was able to be applied to the low temperature gasification of hydrocarbons. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.