The free jet flotation system was developed at the Berlin Technical University in 1985. This system was able to treat ultrafine particles of about -53 mum, In the present study, the fine size fraction of the coal (-0.5 mm) containing 45% ash taken from the Zonguldak Central Washery Plant (ZCWP) of Turkish Hard Coal was beneficiated by using the free jet flotation system. In the flotation tests, the best results were obtained in the case of using a mixture of 90% kerosene and 10% iso-octanol in the amount of 400 g/ton as a collector. Also, the optimum system parameters of a 301 free jet type flotation (FJFT) cell used in this study were determined from the results of systematic tests, In the optimum free jet flotation conditions, the floating coal containing 18.73% ash with a combustible recovery of 72.4% was obtained, (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.