Abstract: The steam gasification of Jinshan petroleum coke catalyzed by potassium salts was investigated in a laboratory fixed-bed reactor, in which the catalytic effects on the gasification activity and the H₂ production characteristics were examined. It is observed that the potassium salts can not only effectively lower the gasification temperature and greatly enhance the gasification activity of petroleum coke, but also promote the carbon-water reaction, the water-gas shift reaction and the methane-steam reforming reaction. With the increasing of gasification temperature, the H₂ content in gas for non-catalytic gasification increases gradually, while that for the catalytic gasification decreases somewhat, which is probably ascribed to the different behavior of water-gas shift reaction during catalytic gasification. Compared with non-catalytic gasification, the catalytic gasification of petroleum coke can generate a higher hydrogen yield and content (the content of H₂ is in the ranges of 47.2%~54.1% for non-catalytic gasification and 55.0%~60.4% for catalytic gasification). The ordering of the catalysis for various potassium salts is K₂CO₃>KAc>KNO₃>K₂SO₄>KCl, but the type of potassium salts has no effects on the distribution of product gases.