Abstract: The Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center of the US Department of Energy has contracted with Combustion Engineering, Inc. (CE) to perform a five-year project on ``Combustion Characterization of Beneficiated Coal-Based Fuels.`` The beneficiated coals are produced by other contractors under the DOE Coal Preparation Program. Several contractor-developed advanced coal cleaning processes are run at pilot-scale cleaning facilities to produce 20-ton batches of fuels for shipment to CE`s laboratory in Windsor, Connecticut. CE then processes the products into either a coal-water fuel (CWF) or a dry microfine pulverized coa1 (DMPC) form for combustion testing. The objectives of this project include: (1) the development of an engineering data base which will provide detailed information on the properties of BCFs influencing combustion, ash deposition, ash erosion, particulate collection, and emissions; and (2) the application of this technical data base to predict the performance and economic impacts of firing the BCFs in various commercial boiler designs. The technical approach used to develop the technical data includes: bench-scale fuel property, combustion, and ash deposition tests; pilot-scale combustion and ash effects tests; and full-scale combustion tests. During the first quarter of 1993, the following technical progress was made: Reported results of drop tube furnace data analyses to determine devolatilization kinetics; reported the results from the re-analyzed pilot-scale ash deposits from the first nine feed coals and BCFs using a modified CCSEM technique; and prepared for upcoming tests of new BCFs being produced.