Despite the wide use of electrostatic precipitators for particulate control in pulverised coal combustion, there are still some aspects surrounding the performance of these devices which are not fully understood, particularly with respect to high carbon ash. The introduction of low NOx burners to meet more stringent emissions regulations has also resulted in an increase in the carbon present in fly ash. An investigation was carried to assess how the operating conditions of a pilot-scale single-stage electrostatic precipitator test facility (ESPTF) affected the collection efficiency of two high carbon fly ashes. Whilst our findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the ESPTF in collecting both fly ash and carbon particles, the performance of the high-resistivity fly ash was significantly better than expected, particularly at higher temperatures. It was concluded that ESP performance of any particular fly ash and the separation of the carbon fraction may not necessarily be predicted by its resistivity alone. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.