This process was developed in the 1970s and early 1980s to the pilot plant stage (0.6 m diameter by 12.2 m, rotating, inclined kiln) by Wright-Malta Corporation (Hooverman and Coffman, 1976; Coffman and Speicher, 1993). Since then, the process has been improved by using a stationary kiln having an internal rotor with vanes. Much of the development work was performed with a stationary kiln that is 0.3 m inside diameter by 3.7 m long. The process is reported to convert as-harvested green wood or any other wet biomass into medium-energy gas of heating value 15.7 to 19.6 MJ/m3 (n) in the self — pressurized kiln at pressures of about 2027 kPa at 590°C and residence times of about 1 hour. Steam is generated from the moisture in the feedstock and is normally not supplied to the kiln. No air or oxygen is used, and recycled wood ash serves as catalyst. As the biomass moves through the kiln from the cool feed end, it is gradually heated and partially dried, yielding steam. It then undergoes pyrolysis, yielding gas, liquids, tars, and char, all of which move cocurrently down the kiln where they undergo steam gasification and reforming to yield more gas. The inorganic residue is discharged at the hot end, and the hot gas is removed at the cold end after passage through heat-transfer coils in the kiln. The wood decomposition exotherm is reported to be sufficient to sustain the process after initial heat-up by an auxiliary boiler. Work in a small kiln showed that at pressures of 1378 to 2736 kPa and temperatures of 590 to 620°C with sodium carbonate catalyst, any type of green biomass can be gasified to 95 to 98% completion as long as it contains sufficient moisture. Dry gas compositions were about 5 to 10 mol % carbon monoxide, 40 to 50 mol % carbon dioxide, 15 to 22 mol % methane, and 20 to 28 mol % hydrogen. It was estimated that 907 t/day of green biomass at 11.6 MJ/kg would provide an output of 329 t/day of methanol.