Emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) from coal combustion at low temperatures has recently become a subject of intense research and debate, because of its increasing concentrations in the atmosphere and its known ability to deplete the Ozone layer and also to contribute to the Greenhouse effect. In the present study, the nonlinear, first-order differential equations, which describe the time behaviour of chemical systems, are solved using the analytical form of the first derivative of the species concentration, in order to calculate the time-dependent composition of various chemical species that evolve from the coal combustion. These studies are made under the low-temperature combustion conditions to determine the factors influencing the N2O formation/destruction and a comparison with experimental findings has been done. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.