The goal of this project was to develop and test an innovative coal cleaning process to reduce the ash content of coal and produce ultra clean coal (UCC). Coal samples that were prepared from concentrates of Iran's Zirab and Tabas coal preparation plants were found to have initial ash contents of 8.31 and 10.36%, respectively. These coals were demineralized with the combination of microwave irradiation pretreatment and dual acid leaching processes with HF followed by HNO3 in a batch reactor. For samples that were microwaved and leached with HF, the reduction in ash ranged from 22 to 76% and from 22 to 82% for Zirab and Tabas coal samples, respectively, depending on leaching conditions. Microwave irradiation pretreatment had a positive effect on demineralization with HF, especially for the coarse size fractions. For the fine size fractions, reduced leaching times were found to enhance the effect of microwave irradiation. The microwave-irradiated, HF-leached product was leached further using a 1.4 M HNO3 solution at a leaching temperature of 65 degrees C to remove fluoride sediments and pyritic sulfur. The ash content of the Zirab coal was reduced from 2.57 to 0.69% by leaching with the HNO3 solution for 1 h. The ash content of the Tabas coal was reduced from 2.44 to 0.39% by leaching with the HNO3 solution for 3 h. The results show that microwave irradiation can be considered as a pretreatment process in the chemical leaching of coal to produce UCC. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.