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Biomass is frequently used to produce CO and H 2 together with undesirable by-products containing CO 2 and liquid tar by pyrolysis and gasification. This leads to decreased energy efficiency and increased maintenance costs. This study investigated the reforming of biogas and tar, respectively, using non-thermal plasma featuring dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The gas surrogates studied were CH 4 and CO 2 , and toluene was used as a substitute for tar. During reforming of biogas, CO or H 2 was added to the CH 4 and CO 2 to investigate their effects on CH 4 and CO 2 conversion. Both the discharge power and gas components influenced the conversion of CH 4 and CO 2 . The conversion efficiency of CH 4 and CO 2 and the selectivity of H 2 and CO both increased with the discharge power while reforming the mixture of CH 4 and CO 2 . The maximum conversion efficiency of CH 4 and CO 2 and selectivity of CO and H 2 were obtained with a CH 4 :CO 2 ratio of 1:2. During reforming of toluene, the conversion efficiency of toluene reached a maximum value of 90% and the production yields of H 2 , CO, and CO 2 reached respective maximums of 0.79, 2.24, and 1.51 mol/mol-toluene at a discharge power of 90 W and temperature of 300 °C. Higher temperatures of 400–500 °C did not favour toluene destruction due to the thermal breakdown of the quartz dielectric and the rapid decrease in the discharging intensity. In addition, reaction mechanism for reforming of both biogas and toluene was proposed to improve our understanding of the reforming process in DBD plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]