[en] Rice is abundantly available in most parts of the world. From this, a significant amount is generated as waste known as rice husk. Although is has its traditional uses, it is mostly unutilised or under utilised. Thus in search of its utilization in a better way such as by thermochemical pyrolysis conversion method with a view to derive liquid products, the locally available Malaysian rice husk was characterised physically as well as its thermal behaviour by TGA study. This paper describes an attempt to derive the reaction kinetics of rice husk pyrolysis in nitrogen atmosphere at different heating rates in the form of degree of reaction rate of devolatilisation and activation energy. A comparative study of the physical properties of some selected biomass locally available in this part of the world are also reviewed. (author)