This study considered the effects of a granular fuel distribution state on the NOx emissions during the sintering process. The results show that fuel pre-granulation technology can be applied to wrapping fuel inside granules to form a double-layered granular structure. Because the in-diffusion of O-2 is restricted in granules, the fuel inside the granules is burnt in a relatively low O-2 atmosphere, which is conducive to inhibiting the conversion of fuel-N to NOx. Meanwhile, part of the generated NOx is reduced to N-2 by CO during the out-diffusion process. Consequently, using fuel pre-granulation minimises the concentration of NOx emissions and fuel-N conversion rate. Sintering experiments confirmed that using pre-granulation reduced the concentration of NOx from 425 ppm to 319 ppm and the fuel-N conversion rate from 59.7% to 49.4% compared with conventional granulation. Therefore, controlling the fuel combustion behaviour by regulating its distribution in granules is an effective measure to reduce NO emissions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.