Simultaneous TG, DTA techniques have been applied to investigate the combustion characteristics of Victorian brown coal derived from different coal fields and including various l!thotypes. TG and DTA profiles of the entire combustion process were obtained to provide a set ofpardmeters which characterize the oxidation potential of these coal samples. These parameters can also be used to predict the combustion performance of pulverized coal in industrial furnaces. The area of the major DTA combustion peak is closely related to the heat released during the combustion process and therefore provides a means of determining the specific energy of the coal. Different lithotypes are also characterized by their corresponding TG and DTA burning profiles.Thermal analysis techniques have been widely used in the study of coal combustion. It is known that for a range of fuels which have similar TG burning profiles, their performance in an industrial pulverized coal furnace is similar [1]. Thermal analysis data can be applied not only to the characterization of different Coals, but also to the evaluation of combustion performance at high temperatures and heating rates. Since only a small sample size is required in the analysis, the burning profile is most useful for evaluating the burning properties of fuel when only small samples are available or when it is impractical to test-fire large quantities of fuel in existing installations [2].In the present work the combustion performance of some brown coal samples and lithotypes of brown coat is investigated by simultaneous TG and DTA techniques.John Wiley & Sons, Limited, Chichester dkad~miai Kiadr~ Budapest