We measured various operational parameters of a 200-MWe, wall-fired, lignite utility boiler under different loads. The parameters measured were gas temperature, gas species concentration, char burnout, component release rates (C, H and N), furnace temperature, heat flux, and boiler efficiency. Cold air experiments of a single burner were conducted in the laboratory. A double swirl flow pulverized-coal burner has two ring recirculation zones that start in the secondary air region of the burner. With increasing secondary air flow, the air flow axial velocity increases, the maximum values for the radial velocity, tangential velocity, and turbulence intensity all increase, and there are slight increases in the air flow swirl intensity and the recirculation zone size. With increasing load gas, the temperature and CO concentration in the central region of burner decrease, while O-2 concentration. NOx concentration, char burnout, and component release rates of C, H, and N increase. Pulverized-coal ignites farther into the burner, in the secondary air region. Gas temperature, O-2 concentration, NOx concentration, char burnout and component release rates of C, H, and N all increase. Furthermore, CO concentration varies slightly and pulverized-coal ignites closer. In the side wall region, gas temperature, O-2 concentration, and NOx concentration all increase, but CO concentration varies only slightly. In the bottom row burner region the furnace temperature and heat flux increase appreciably, but the increase become more obvious in the middle and top row burner regions and in the burnout region. Compared with a 120-MWe load, the mean NOx emission at the air preheater exits for 190-MWe load increases from 589.5 mg/m(3) (O-2 = 6%) to 794.6 mg/m(3) (O-2 = 6%), and the boiler efficiency increases from 90.73% to 92.45%. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.