SUMMARY This study aimed at presenting a model to simulate downdraft biomass gasification under steady-state or unsteady-state conditions. The model takes into account several processes that are relevant to the transformation of solid biomass into fuel gas, such as drying; devolatilization; oxidation; CO2, H2O, and H2 reduction with char, pressure losses, solid and gas temperature, particle diameter, and bed void fraction evolution; and heat transfer by several mechanisms such as solid-gas convection, bed-wall convection, and radiation in the solid phase. Model validation is carried out by performing experiments in two lab-scale downdraft fixed bed reactors (unsteady-state conditions) and in a novel industrial pilot plant of 400 kWth-100 kWe (steady-state conditions). The capability of the model to predict the effect of several factors (reactor diameter, air superficial velocity, and particle size and biomass moisture) on key response variables (temperature field, maximum temperature inside the bed, flame front velocity, biomass consumption rate, and composition and calorific value of the producer gas) is evaluated. For most response variables, a good agreement between experimental and estimated values is attained, and the model is able to reproduce the trend of variation of the experimental results. In general terms, the process performance improves with higher reactor diameter and lesser air superficial velocity, particle size, and moisture content of biomass. The steady-state simulation appears to be a versatile tool for simulating different reactor configurations (preheating systems, variable geometry, and different materials). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]