The gasification of biomass has continued to receive increasing attention as energy prices continue to climb and more focus is placed on alternative energy sources. The use of circulating fluidized beds (a natural expansion to fluidized beds) look to be a promising means of gasifying biomass. The design and construction of a small scale cold flow model circulating fluidized bed will be examined to characterize the flow properties of the bed material and the fluidizing medium. This paper also looks at how tar formation, particulate content, and syngas composition are affected by various factors including variations in temperature, fluidizing medium, oxygen to carbon ratio, and equivalent ratio in a circulating fluidized bed gasifier.