Slagging is a major operating problem in application of the atomization-suspension combustion technology for burning coal water slurry (CWS) fuel in small and low height industrial boilers The fluidization-suspension combustion is a new alternative for replacement of oil which is capable of solving the slagging problems In addition it can be successfully applied to CWS-fired boilers with capacity smaller than 35 t/h About 530 000 medium and small scale industrial boilers with low boiler efficiency in China provide the technology a very promising prospect The principles and contents of CWS fluidization-suspension combustion technology are introduced in detail in this paper And a new type of 14 MW fluidization-suspension CWS-fired boiler was developed the performance of which showed that boiler efficiency was 91 53% Emission of SO2 and NOx was 346 1 mg/m(3) and 469 5 mg/m(3) respectively From the application the CWS-fired boiler showed good features such as high efficiency low pollutant emission good load regulation good CWS quality adaptability steady operation and convenient maintenance Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B V All rights reserved