The goal of this Bioincubator Project was to improve the pyrolysis of biomass through the use of methane. Our initial concept was to use methane as a fluidizing gas with a hydrogen transfer catalyst. The results of the experiments did show that methane as a fluidizing gas, with a hydrogen transfer catalyst, does enhance catalytic pyrolysis over that which is achieved with an inert fluidizing gas. Using methane as a fluidizing gas, with a hydrogen transfer catalyst, consistently produced better products with lower oxygen content than the products produced when an inert gas was used. These improvements were also consistent with the results obtained through pure component testing as well. However, the improvement was too small to justify any significant expense. The addition of hydrogen with a hydrogen transfer catalyst consistently showed a much greater, more significant effect than methane. This indicates that hydropyrolysis is a more effective approach to improved catalytic pyrolysis than methane addition. During the course of this project, another way to significantly increase biogenic liquid yields from pyrolysis through the use of methane was discovered. We discovered a remarkably stable CO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
/steam reforming catalyst which directly makes a 2:1 H<
sub>
2<
/sub>
/CO synthesis gas from the CO, CO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
, methane, ethane and propane product gas from integrated hydropyrolysis and hydroconversion (IH<
sup>
2�<
/sup>
). The biogenic synthesis gas can then be converted to liquid hydrocarbons using Fischer Tropsch. The hydrogen for the IH<
sup>
2<
/sup>
unit would then be provided through the use of added methane. By utilizing the biogenic gas to make liquids, 40% more biogenic liquid hydrocarbons can be made from wood, thereby increasing liquid yields from IH<
sup>
2<
/sup>
from 86GPT to 126GPT. It also simplifies the hydrogen plant since no CO or CO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
removal is required.