An experimental investigation on the combustion behavior of pulverized coal particles was performed using the cross-section micrography techniques while sample coal particles were collected in-situ from the flow reactor. The coal particles were representative of pulverized bituminous coal undergoing a raped pyrolysis and combustion, however, quenched at the time when the particles were deposited onto a sample plate. The internal structure of coal was observed to change as deposited. Upon injection into a flow reactor, bituminous coal particles showed many holes which represented internal pore formation during the pyrolysis. The relative portion of the remaining matrix of coal was decreasing as the residence time progressed. This direct observation of cross-section of burning particles enabled better understanding of the coal combustion behavior.