Oxy-fuel combustion technology with carbon capture and storage could significantly reduce global CO<
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2<
/sub>
emissions, a greenhouse gas. Implementation can be aided by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, which require an accurate understanding of coal particle kinetics as they go through combustion in a range of environments. To understand the kinetics of pulverized coal char combustion, a heated flow reactor was operated under a wide range of experimental conditions. We varied the environment for combustion by modifying the diluent gas, oxygen concentration, gas flow rate, and temperature of the reactor/reacting gases. Measurements of reacting particle temperatures were made for a sub-bituminous and bituminous coal char, in environments with CO<
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2<
/sub>
or N<
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2<
/sub>
as the diluent gas, with 12, 24, and 36 vol-% oxygen concentration, at 50, 80, 100, and 200 standard liters per minute flowing through the reactor, reactor temperatures of 1200, 1400 K, at pressures slightly above atmospheric. The data shows consistent increasing particle temperature with increased oxygen concentration, reactor temperature and higher particle temperatures for N<
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2<
/sub>
diluent than CO<
sub>
2<
/sub>
. We also see the effects of CO<
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2<
/sub>
gasification when different ranks of coal are used, and how the reduction in the temperature due to the CO<
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2<
/sub>
diluent is greater for the coal char that has higher reactivity. Quantitative measurements for temperature are not yet complete due to ongoing calibration of detection systems.