The effect of heating rate and particle size on gasification of one inferior coal was experimentally studied. A homogeneous reaction model was used to calculate kinetic parameters with the Freeman-Carroll method. The results show that gasification reactivity can be enhanced by reduction of coal particle size and increase of heating rate. Additionally, coal ash plays a catalytic role to a certain extent on gasification. It was also found that the reaction rate can be enhanced significantly, when increasing the ash-coal weight ratio from 1:2 to 2:1. The gasification order under CO2 atmosphere is close to 1. There is a kinetic compensation effect between activation energy and frequency factor for the gasification of the inferior coal investigated.