An investigation was made of the removal of pyritic and organic sulfur by pyrolysis at ambient pressure of a Turkish lignite under nitrogen and carbon dioxide atmospheres and the effect of mineral matter on the sulfur removal in pyrolysis of HCl and HCI/HF-treated coal under carbon dioxide atmosphere. Results obtained indicated that both pyritic and organic sulfur removal increased with increasing pyrolysis temperature. The pyrolysis in carbon dioxide atmosphere had more effect on the organic sulfur removal at high temperatures. As a consequence of treatment of coal with HCl, pyritic sulfur removal increased but organic sulfur removal decreased. This implies that the removal of carbonates from coal negatively affects the organic sulfur removal. The observed decrease in organic sulfur removal may be related to the decrease in pyrolytic conversion. It was observed that HCl/HF treatment has an increased effect on the pyritic removal and organic sulfur removal during pyrolysis. The increase in organic sulfur removal after HF-treatment therefore might be due to the removal of clay minerals in the raw coal structure. In addition, it may be said that the presence of silicate minerals in the coal matrix can be induced that the easily removable organic sulfur compounds are converted to thermally stable and non-removable organic sulfur compounds (thiophenic or condensed thiophenic compounds) at these temperatures. Increase in the pyritic sulfur removal of HCl-treated and HCI/HF-treated coal samples may be attributed to the fact that increase of mass and/or heat transport in comparison with untreated coal as a result of elimination of mineral matter. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.