A detailed study has been carried out on how hydration methods and conditions influence the sulphur capture potential of ash from a 165 MWe circulating fluidized bed combustion boiler firing a petroleum coke and coal blend. Both bed ash and fly ash were hydrated with saturated steam at various saturation conditions for different periods of time. Samples of the hydrated residues were then analyzed for free lime and calcium hydroxide content after the hydration process. Some size fractions of the steam-hydrated samples and those hydrated with liquid water in previous work were re-sulphated for 90 min using synthetic flue gas in a thermogravimetric analyzer at 850 degreesC to investigate how reactivation conditions affect the final sulphur capture behaviour of the ash. This work confirms that either hydration method is effective for reactivating the bed ash fractions tested but not fly ash, which should either be re-injected directly or reactivated in some other manner to improve its sulphur capture potential. Crown Copyright (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.