The purpose of this study is to assess approaches to modeling coal gasification and combustion in general purpose CFD codes. Coal gasification and combustion involve complex multiphase flows and chemical reactions with strong influences of turbulence and radiation. CFD codes would treat coal particles as a discrete phase and gas species are considered as a continuous phase. An approach to modeling coal reaction in $FLUENT^{(R)}$, selected in this study as a typical commercial CFD code, was evaluated including its devolatilization, gas phase reactions, and char oxidation, turbulence, and radiation submodels. CFD studies in the literature were reviewed to show the uncertainties and limitations of the results. Therefore, the CFD analysis gives useful information, but the results should be carefully interpreted based on understandings on the uncertainties associated with the modelings of coal gasification and combustion.