The slurrying ability of XiMeng brown coal thermallymodified at medium- to low-temperature (100 °C–350 °C)
was investigated. We discussed the mechanism for improving the slurrying ability of brown coal by thermal
treatment considering the coal properties, surface micro-topography, microscopic pore structure, and themoisture
reabsorption characteristics. The results suggest that medium- to low-temperature thermal treatment can
remove the internalmoisture content of brown coal, which decreases from 19.42% (raw coal) to 1.8% after treatment
at 350 °C for 0.5 h. The coal rank is increased as AC/O increases from 2.99 of raw coal to 4.88 of 350 °C. The
coal surface becomes smooth and the shape becomes regular.With increasing thermalmodification temperature,
the surface area and BJH desorption pore volume of the coal samples first increased and then decreased, and the
average pore diameter increased. All these phenomena improve the slurrying ability of brown coal. Higher thermal
modification temperatures and longer time duration result in lower equilibrium moisture content of coal
after moisture reabsorption. However, when the time is more than 0.5 h, its effect on the equilibrium moisture
content is limited. The most suitable thermal modification temperature for improving the slurrying ability is between
200 °C and 250 °C.