Deposition of TiAlN/Nb, TiAlN/Ta, TiAlN/W and TiAlN/Zr multilayer coatings on 409 stainless steel was studied by CVD in a fluidized bed reactor (FBR-CVD). The coatings consisted of four TiAlN layers with individual thickness of 2.5-3.5 mu m, and four metal interlayers with thicknesses in the range of 100-250 nm. The W interlayers suffered partial nitridation during the coating process and the resulting coatings had poor adhesion. Deposition of Zr through reduction of ZrI4 by H-2 was found to be inefficient. Both TiAlN/Nb and TiAlN/Ta coatings showed good adhesion, but only TiAlN/Nb provided sulfidation resistance to 409 steel during exposure to simulated coal gas at 1173 K for 300 h. Though outward diffusion of Cr took place during the corrosion test, the results reported in this paper suggest that TiAlN/Nb coatings are promising candidates for corrosion protection of steels under typical coal gasifier conditions. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.