A pre-heating vaporization technology of coal water slurry, CWS, was developed to increase the efficiency of coal gasification with the reduction of oxygen consumption. A CWS pre-heating experimental unit having a capacity of 2.0 tons-coal/day was manufactured. After the CWS was heated to 5 73 K at about 10 MPa, water in CWS was continuously vaporized in a tube of which the diameter increased gradually (2-10 mm I.D.), and dry coal particles with steam were atomized and fed to a vessel. No aggregation of coal particles was observed in the atomized samples. The temperature and the pressure distributions of the fluid were calculated with empirical heat transfer and pressure drop correlations. The calculated results well corresponded to the experimental data measured in some test points. Using the calculation model, a large scale apparatus of 100 tons-coal/day was designed using KNO3+NaNO2+NaNO3 molten salt as a heating medium. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.