A study of fine coal beneficiation in a laboratory triboelectric separation system was carried out to provide a fundamental understanding of improving the separation efficiency of thermal coal powder by chemical conditioning. Separation results of untreated and chemically treated fine coal were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that the charge-mass ratios of clean coal and minerals increased greatly with ethanol serving as the modification chemical. The optimal deash efficiency of 85.46% was obtained when the coal was treated by 2.0 kg/t ethanol. However, excessive dosage of chemical agents had a bad effect on the separation results.