The design of low emission combustion chambers using low NOx strategies involving staged burning or stratified combustion requires a detailed understanding of the combustion processes of the fuel volatiles and char burning. In this paper some aspects of the combustion of coal-volatiles and char are considered. The extreme cases of volatile combustion, namely premixed and diffusive burning are examined in order to consider the range of NOx reduction options available to the combustion chamber designer. A similar set of situations is examined for char burning and the release of the fuel-nitrogen to form NO. The implications of the processes are considered in two practical applications, those of the high temperature combustion found in pulverised coal burning and in a lower temperature regime of the conditions under fluidised bed combustion. In the case of pulverised coal flame the degree of mixedness of the volatiles played a dominant part in determining the extent of NO formation whilst the role of char-nitrogen is only to form NO and NO reduction is limited because of the short residence time and low char concentrations at the end of the reaction zone. In a circulating fluidised bed combustor it was concluded that a different situation can arise. If the bed is sufficiently large enough to give a residence time of several seconds, then the NO initially formed in the fluidised bed is reduced by the carbon in the top of the bed and the riser under steady state conditions and its concentration at the exit can be estimated by equilibrium calculations. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.