The influence of carbon structure and mineral matter of three pulverized coals on their char characteristics including reactivity was studied under a range of combustion conditions in a drop tube furnace (DTF) and thermogravimetric (TGA) furnace for PCI application. Physical and chemical properties of coals and their combustion derivatives were characterized by automated reflectogram, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and BET N 2 adsorption. The QEMSCAN* technique was used *QEMSCAN is a trademark