NOVELTY - Converting carbonaceous material to synthetic natural gas involves passing the material and a superheated steam to a reforming zone at 850-1200degreesC and 3-500 psig pressure to produce synthetic gaseous product comprised of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane; passing the product to heat recovery zone where its temperature is lowered; passing the product to solid recovery zone, organics removal zone followed by acid gas removal zone; and passing the product to methanation process unit containing at least one catalyst to form methane product stream.    USE - For converting carbonaceous material such as source of fossil fuels (e.g. coal, peat, lignite, tar sands, and bitumen from oil shale), and biomass material such as cellulosic material (e.g. wood, bagasse, rice hulls, rice straw, kennaf, old railroad ties, dried distiller grains, corn stalks, cobs, and straw) to synthetic natural gas hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The process provides synthetic natural gas that is an alternative to natural gas. Synthetic natural gas is a renewable gas typically obtained from biomass and having natural gas specifications, thus it can be transported through existing natural gas infrastructure, substituting for natural gas in all existing applications, and the use of biomass as the feedstock does not result in a net carbon dioxide emission as long as the source material is replanted to replace those used as fuel. The atmospheric carbon dioxide is reduced by sequestering the carbon dioxide that is released during the conversion of biomass (negative carbon dioxide emission).    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Converting carbonaceous material to synthetic natural gas involves passing the carbonaceous material and a superheated steam to a reforming zone at 850-1200degreesC and a pressure of 3-500 psig to produce a synthetic gaseous product comprised of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane at an elevated temperature; passing the synthetic gaseous product stream at elevated temperature to a heat recovery zone where its temperature is lowered; passing the lowered temperature synthetic gaseous product stream to a solid recovery zone where all remaining solids are removed; passing the synthetic gaseous product stream from the solid recovery zone to an organics removal zone where all of organic material is removed by contact with an organic liquid in which the organic material is soluble; passing the synthetic gaseous product stream from the organics removal zone to an acid gas removal zone where all acid gases are removed; passing the synthetic gaseous product stream from the acid gas removal zone to a methanation process unit containing at least one methanation catalyst and operated at methanation process conditions resulting in a product stream comprised predominantly of methane.