The current investigation focuses on the kinetics of water liberation during a drying process of a bituminous coal. Using the technique of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), the mass change of a sample was recorded over the temperature range from 35 to 115 degrees C at a heating rate of 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, or 0.8 degrees C/min. The measurements were then analyzed by applying the Coats-Redfern method. The analysis indicates that the water liberated from the coal samples originates from moisture residing in coal particles, including bulk water, capillary water in coal pores, and multilayer water at pore surfaces. The bulk and capillary moisture is easily removed with no energy barrier, while the removal of the multilayer moisture requires an activation energy of 19.7 kJ/mol on average, which corresponds to the dissociation energy of hydrogen bonds between the water molecules and the hydrophilic sites in the coal structure. The reaction order for desorption of multilayer water is found to be unity. Calculations of the amount of water liberated from the samples during the TGA measurements demonstrate that the multilayer water at the surface of coal pores takes up at least 1.6% of the sample mass, with the overall moisture content of the present coal of 6.9%.