Co-firing straw with coal in pulverized fuel boilers can cause problems related to fly ash utilization, deposit formation, corrosion and SCR catalyst deactivation due to the high contents of Cl and K in the ash. To investigate the interaction between coal and straw ash and the effect of coal quality on fly ash and deposit properties, straw was co-fired with three kinds of coal in an entrained flow reactor. The compositions of the produced ashes were compared to the available literature data to find suitable scaling parameters that can be used to predict the composition of ash from straw and coal co-firing. Reasonable agreement in fly ash compositions regarding total K and fraction of water soluble K was obtained between co-firing in an entrained flow reactor and full-scale plants. Capture of potassium and subsequent release of HCl can be achieved by sulphation with SO2 and more importantly, by reaction with Al and Si in the fly ash. About 70-80% K in the fly ash appears as alumina silicates while the remainder K is mainly present as sulphate. Lignite/straw co-firing produces fly ash with relatively high Cl content. This is probably because of the high content of calcium and magnesium in lignite reacts with silica so it is not available for reaction with potassium chloride. Reduction of Cl and increase of S in the deposits compared to the fly ashes could be attributed to sulphation of the deposits. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.