A potentially new use for Illinois coal is its use as a fuel injected into a blast furnace to produce molten iron as the first step in steel production. Because of its increasing cost and decreasing availability, metallurgical coke is now being replaced by coal injected at the tuyere area of the furnace where the blast air enters. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the combustion of coal during the blast furnace injection process and to delineate the optimum properties of the feed coal. This investigation is significant to the use of Illinois coal in that the limited research to date suggests that coals of low fluidity and moderate to high sulfur and chlorine contents are suitable feedstocks for blast furnace injection. This proposal is a follow-up to one funded for the 1992-93 period. It is intended to complete the study already underway with the Armco Inc. Steel Company and to initiate a new cooperative study along somewhat similar lines with the Inland Steel Company. The results of this study will lead to the development of a testing and evaluation protocol that will give a unique and much needed understanding of the behavior of coal in the injection process and prove the potential of Illinois coals for such use. During this quarter samples of two feed coals and the IBCSP 112 (Herrin No. 6) were prepared for reactivity testing and compared to blast furnace coke, and char fines taken from an active blast furnace. As the initial part of a broad reactivity analysis program, these same samples were also analyzed on a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) to determine their combustion and reactivity properties.