Abstract: Because of enormous reserves,good ignition and burnout characteristics,Shenhua coal has become a kind of important power coal used in China.The annual consumption is more thanten percent of the gross coal consumption. There are many kinds of Shenhua coal,which can be divided into high ash fusion point( e.g.,Carboniferous,Junggar coal) and low ash fusion point( e.g.,Shenhun) in terms of ash fusion temperature.The output of low ash melting point coal is large,which is generally the main coal for power plant.However,in order to prevent slagging,the high and low ash fusion coal are blended in appropriate proportions( e.g.,7 ∶ 3,8 ∶ 2).To date,the researches mainly focused on the engineering application of Shnehua coal,whereas the investigation on the microstructure difference of different Shenhua coal has rarely been reported. Thus,two typical Shenhua coals,such as Shenhun coal and Carboniferous coal,were selected to characterize and compare the functional group distribution of raw coal and coal char by infrared spectroscopy in this work.The results show that the distribution of the functional group in Shenhun coal is similar to that in Carboniferous coal.Both Shenhun and Carboniferous coal find the alkane group,including carbon-carbon double bond,carbon-carbon triple bond,methyl and methylene group,the nitrogen-containing and sufur-containing groups. In term of FTIR absorption strength,the functional groups of Carboniferous coal is higher than that of Shenhun coal.However,FTIR absorption strength measurements show that the carbon-carbon double bond,methyl and methylene group in Shenhun char is higher than that in Carboniferous char.This is probably because the fatty chain in Shenhun and Carboniferous coal are almost of the same length.The length of fatty chain of Carboniferous char increases significantly,meanwhile,that of Shenhun char shows little change.In addition,It is observed by SEM thatthere is obviously alternative banded rock-coal structure in Shenhun coal. However,the crystalline structure becomes in order,and the pore structure increases significantly after coking.The oxidation activity of Shenhun coke and Carboniferous char was compared by thermogravimetric reactor.Additionally,it is found that the reactivity of Shenhun char is obviously higher than that of Carboniferous char,and Shenhun coke is more flammable.Therefore,from the comparison of combustion characteristics,it is appropriate to choose Shenhun as the main fuel coal.