When incompletely gasified coal particles impact the slag layer in an entrained slagging gasifier, a situation will arise where the particles will either get engulfed by the slag or re-entrained into the circulating gas. This will be determined by a balance of forces acting on the particle which in turn is governed by the slag and particle properties, and pertinent gasifier conditions, namely temperature, and particle impact velocity. In this paper a model is introduced that takes into account, the drag-, capillary-, and added mass-forces and predicts the behavior of spherical particles of different sizes and slags of different FeOx contents. The model predicts that particles either get completely submerged, settle at an incompletely separated position, or oscillate at the interface. A sensitivity analysis was performed showing that for a particle of certain size and impact velocity, submersion is most strongly promoted by a low slag viscosity (largely influenced by FeOx content) and contact angle (determined by whether or not-reactive wetting and liquid Fe formation occurs). (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.