Oxy-fuel combustion is considered as one of promising options for carbon dioxide capture in future coal power plants. Currently models available in CFD codes fail to predict accurately the radiative heat transfer in oxy-fuel cases due to higher pressure of carbon dioxide and water vapor. This paper concerns numerical investigation applying three band formulations aiming an accurate prediction of radiative properties. The radiative heat transfer is calculated by discrete ordinate method coupled with a weighted sum of gray gases model. The first case relates to the domain-based approach using air-fired parameters. In the last two cases, the optimized parameters of 3 and 4 gray gases fitted to oxy-fired conditions are implemented through a non-gray gases approach. Results applying these set of parameters are evaluated through a comparison with experimental data. Discrepancies between the predicted and measured velocity and 02 concentration are found mainly close to the burner due to shortcomings of the turbulence model and inaccurate thermochemical closure. The gas flame temperatures are better predicted by the optimized parameters for oxy-fuel conditions, which are considerably lower than the values calculated by the air-fired parameters. Similar trends are observed when the radiative heat fluxes at the lateral wall are compared. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.