Mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO) formation and reduction in fixed-bed combustion of straw have been modeled mathematically and verified experimentally. The model for the straw combustion and nitrogen chemistry consists of sub-models for evaporation, pyrolysis, tar and char combustion, nitrogen conversion, and energy and mass conservation. Twenty chemical reactions are included, of which 12 belong to the fuel nitrogen reaction network. Volatile nitrogen is assumed to be NO, NH3, HCN and HNCO, and char nitrogen is converted to NO during char oxidation. The model predictions are in qualitative agreement with the measurements during the ignition phase, i.e. when the combustion front passes through the un-burnt fuel. The yield of NO can be reduced considerably by using a low primary air flow due to the longer gas residence in the fixed-bed. while the NO exhaust concentration is insensitive to the bed temperature. The NO exhaust concentration initially reaches a maximum and then decreases towards a stable value after the straw bed is ignited. Variations of NO, NH3, HCN, and HNCO concentrations in the ignition flame front indicate that a large quantity of NO can be reduced in the thin flame front zone. The developed model is further validated by separate experiments in which NO or NH3 was added at the middle through tubes or at the bottom of the bed with the primary air flow. Both the simulations and measurements showed that the variation of the NO exhaust concentration is small as compared with the injected NO or NH3 concentration. According to the simulations and experiments, it is proposed that flue gas recirculation may be a very effective method of reducing NO emissions from flue gas in the fixed-bed combustion of straw. Calculations indicated that about 20% of the flue gas may be recirculated without significantly affecting the combustion behavior. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.