A comprehensive mathematical model is applied to simulate the effects of the input power and tar cracking on the pyrolysis of wood blocks for both microwave-induced and conventional heating. Despite of the highly different process dynamics for the two cases, the yields of the primary product classes (char, tar, gas) are comparable. Instead, while in the case of conventional heating the presence of secondary reactions leads to very low yields of the condensable products, these are always produced in high quantities in the other heating modality (50-56% for the typical kinetics of wood tar cracking). Also, the conversion times increase by a factor of about three (input power between 1500 and 500 W) and up to factors of 6-7 (input power 250 W) (versus factors of 3-16 for conventional heating). (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.