The slow pyrolysis of six Chinese biomasses was studied by thermogravimetric experiments. Non-linear square fitting method is used to calculate DTG data. The analysis results show that it is not possible to exactly represent the biomass pyrolysis by a one-step model with different mechanisms. Thus, three-pseudocomponent models were used to simulate the biomass pyrolysis. It was found that the three-pseudocomponent model with n-order kinetics (model II) is more accurate than the model with first-order kinetics (model I). Activation energies of three-pseudocomponents in model II are bigger than the values in model I. It is shown that model II yields the best simulation results, especially with respect to describe accurately the pyrolysis of the first pseudocomponent (hemicellulose) and the last one (lignin). Nevertheless, with regard to a practical utilization, the three-pseudocomponent model with a reaction order of one could be used, because the accuracy to represent biomass pyrolysis is high enough. Unrealistic high values of the reaction order are avoided, and thus this model is more realistic with respect to the chemical interpretation of the reaction order. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.