The increasing environmental concern caused by the use of fossil fuels and the concomitant need for improved combustion efficiency is leading to the development of new coal cleaning and utilisation processes. However, the benefits achieved by the removal of most mineral matter from coal either by physical or chemical methods can be annulled if poor coal combustibility characteristics are attained. In this work a high volatile bituminous coal with 6% ash content was subjected to chemical demineralisation via hydrofluoric and nitric acid leaching, the ash content of the clean coal was reduced to 0.3%. The original and treated coals were devolatilised in a drop tube furnace and the structure and morphology of the resultant chars was analysed by optical and scanning electron microscopies. The reactivity characteristics of the chars were studied by isothermal combustion tests in air at different temperatures in a thermogravimetric system. Comparison of the combustion behaviour and pollutant emissions of both coals was conducted in a drop tube furnace operating at 1000 degreesC. The results of this work indicate that the char obtained from the chemically treated coal presents very different structure, morphology and reactivity behaviour than the char from the original coal. The changes induced by the chemical treatment increased the combustion efficiency determined in the drop tube furnace, in fact higher burnout levels were obtained for the demineralised coal. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.