Summary In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous (NARX) neural network model were employed in order to model a fixed bed downdraft gasification. The relation between the feature group and the regression performance was investigated. First, feature group consists of the equivalence ratio (ER), air flow rate (AF), and temperature distribution (T0‐T5) obtained from the fixed bed downdraft gasifiers, while the second group includes ultimate and proximate values of biomasses, ER, AF, and the reduction temperature (T0). Models constructed to predict the syngas composition (H2, CO2, CO, CH4) and calorific value. Experimental gasification data that involve 3831 data samples that belong to pinecone and wood pellet were used for training the ANNs. Different ANN architecture and NARX time series model have been constructed to examine the prediction accuracy of the models. The results of the ANN models were consistent with the experimental data (R2 > 0.99). The overall score of NARX time series networks is found to be higher than other architecture types. A successful method is proposed to reduce the number of features, and the effect of the features on the prediction capability was examined by calculating the relative importance index using the Garson's equation.

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