NOVELTY - Producing cooled syngas from carbon-containing feedstock, involves introducing carbon-containing feedstock and oxidant to reactor for gasifying (110) carbon-containing feedstock, generating first vapor stream comprising hot syngas; feeding a portion of first vapor stream to cooling device; introducing liquid to cooling device (120), where portion of heat contained in hot syngas to vaporize liquid and cool first vapor stream to generate second vapor stream; and feeding second vapor stream to waste-heat recovery unit (130) to recover some thermal energy associated with second vapor stream.    USE - For producing cooled syngas from a carbon-containing feedstock includes biomass, or wood chips (claimed), where syngas can be converted into alkanes, olefins, oxygenates and alcohol.    ADVANTAGE - The method prevents fouling of waste-heat recovery Units; allows for effective management of tars produced during biomass gasification as well as improved water management. The method does not include syngas cooling by gas recycle.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Producing cooled syngas from a carbon-containing feedstock, involves (a) introducing a carbon-containing feedstock and an oxidant to a reactor under suitable conditions for gasifying (110) the carbon-containing feedstock, generating a first vapor stream comprising hot syngas; (b) feeding at least a portion of the first vapor stream to a cooling device; (c) introducing a liquid to the cooling device (120), where a portion of heat contained in the hot syngas is effective to vaporize the liquid and cool the first vapor stream to generate a second vapor stream; and (d) feeding the second vapor stream to a waste-heat recovery unit (130) to recover at least some thermal energy associated with the second vapor stream, producing cool syngas. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for apparatus for producing cool syngas from a carbon-containing feedstock, comprising (a) a reactor for gasifying a carbon-containing feedstock, to generate a first vapor stream comprising hot syngas; (b) a cooling device for cooling at least a portion of the first vapor stream; (c) an inlet to the cooling device for vaporizing a liquid and cooling the first vapor stream to generate a second vapor stream; and (d) a waste -heat recovery unit for recovering thermal energy associated with the second vapor stream, to produce cool syngas.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a block diagram of for producing cooled syngas from carbon-containing feedstock.    Biomass gasifier (110)    Cooling device (120)    Gas stream (125)    Waste-heat recovery unit (130)    Water-containing stream (135)    Water supply (140)    Cooled syngas (195)