We measured various operational parameters of a 200-MWe, wall-fired, lignite utility boiler under various outer secondary air vane angles. The parameters measured were gas temperature, gas species concentrations, char burnout, and component release rates (C, H and N). Cold air experiments of a single burner were conducted in the laboratory. A double swirl flow pulverized-coal burner has a single ring recirculation zone that forms in the secondary air region in the burner. By decreasing vane angles, maximum values of radial velocity, tangential velocity and turbulence intensity all increase. Moreover, swirl intensity of air flow and recirculation zone size increase. Concomitantly, in the central region of the burner, decreasing the vane angles of outer secondary air increases gas temperatures, CO concentrations, char burnout and component release rates of C, H, and N, while O-2 and NOx concentrations decrease, and an early ignition of pulverized-coal occurs. Meanwhile, in the secondary air region of the burner, conditions are similar except that NOx mean concentrations are reversed showing instead an increase. In the side wall region, gas temperatures increase, O-2 and NOx concentrations decrease, but CO concentrations vary only slightly. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.