Experiments were carried out in a multi-path air inlet one-dimensional furnace to assess NOx emission characteristics of the staged combustion of BRXL lignite and its dried coals. The impact of moisture content, multiple air staging, pulverized coal fineness and burnout air position on NOx emissions under deep, middle and shallow air-staged combustion conditions. Moreover, the impact of blending coals on NOx emissions was investigated in this paper. The unburned carbon concentration in fly ash was also tested. Experimental results based on the combustion of BRXL lignite and its dried coals show that NOx emissions can be reduced drastically by air-staged combustion. NOx emissions reduce with the increase of the air that is staged and the distance between the burner and burnout air position. Dried coal of BRXL lignite emits a smaller amount of NOx than that of BRXL lignite. However, the dried degree of BRXL lignite is closely related to R-90 fineness. Dried coal with optimal moisture content yields least NOx emissions. When deep or middle staged combustion was adopted, the application of multi-staged combustion is conducive to NOx reduction. However, when shallow staged combustion was adopted, NOx emissions are higher in multi-staged combustion than that in single-staged combustion with M-S = 0.54. Thus, the existence of a certain concentration of O-2 in reduction zone would significantly reduce NOx emissions. The blending coals that dried coals of BRXL lignite were blended with bituminous coals emit a larger amount of NOx than that of the dried coal alone. NOx emissions decrease with the increase of the proportion of dried coal in the blending coal. Moreover, the unburned carbon concentration in fly ash of dried coal in staged combustion is lower than that of BRXL lignite in staged combustion. On the whole, the dried coal of BRXL lignite is conducive to NOx reduction in staged combustion. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.