Coal-water slurry (CWS) holds promise to offer a long-term alternative to fuel oil, and also it is being conceived as an attractive fuel for power generation industry in India. The essential requirements of the CWS technology, viz., the additive package, concentration of additives, particle size distribution (PSD) of coal, solids loading, methodology for CWS formulation and its theological properties, have been discussed and reported here. The effect of the two newly developed anionic additives in the formulation of CWS has been studied. The basic parameters were established taking beneficiated Ledo coal samples with 9.7% ash content. Ball milling of the coal samples in a wet grinding process could produce particle size distributions most suited for highly loaded CWS. Coal loadings to the extent of 70% in the CWS have been achieved using a concentration of 0.8 wt.% (on coal charge) of the naphthalene-based additive referred to as 'P'. Using 0.9 wt.% of the naphthalene-toluene-based additive denoted as 'R', a coal loading of 69% has been achieved. The viscosities of the slurries were found to be below 1000 mPa s. The shelf lives of slurries were found to be 22 and 20 days with the use of additives P and R, respectively, in the CWS formulation. The two additives functioned well in CWS formulation with Sirka coal having relatively higher ash content (14.4%). Using the specified concentration of the additives P and R, the solid loadings of 67% and 65%, respectively, could be obtained under the established parameters. The lower values of solids loading from Sirka coal than that from Ledo coal in CWS formulation may he attributed to the higher percentages of oxygen-containing functional groups (O-OH and O-COOH), ash content and higher O/C ratio of Sirka coal. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.