This study is part of a program assessing the suitability of chemical looping for direct combustion of Victorian brown coal. The performance of NiO as an oxygen carrier in presence of a dried Victorian brown coal was assessed during five alternating cycles of reduction and oxidation in a CO(2) environment using a TGA. The experiments indicate a 4.4-7.5% weight loss of the oxygen carrier per cycle. Preliminary SEM-EDX and FACTSAGE predictions also indicate weight loss, but not to the same extent. The percentage of combustion of coal achieved at the 5th cycle was approximately 67%. Cycle 2 showed maximum reactivity (during reduction) with a decreasing trend during the subsequent cycles. These initial experiments did not reveal much agglomeration between ash and NiO although longer duration experiments are required to explore this issue further. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.