The biomass for entrained-flow gasification needs to be pretreated to significantly increase its heating value and to make it more readily transportable. The pyrolysis pretreatment was conducted in a lab scale fixed-bed reactor; the reactor was heated to elevate the temperature at 5 degrees C/min before holding at the desired pyrolysis temperature for 1.5 h a fixed time. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the yield, composition and heating value of the gaseous, liquid and solid products were determined. The pyrolysis removed most oxygenated constituents of rice straw while significantly increased its energy density. Meantime, it changes the physical properties of biomass powders. The results show that the angle of repose, the angle of internal friction of semi-char decrease obviously; the bulk density of semi-char is bigger than that of biomass. This could favor the feeding of biomass. Considering yield and heating value of the solid semi-char product and the feeding problem, the best pyrolysis temperature was 400 degrees C. The results of this study have confirmed the feasibility of employing pyrolyzed biomass for entrained-flow gasification; they are useful for the additional studies that will be necessary for designing an efficient biomass entrained-flow gasification system. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.