Four coal sources that had different ash contents were evaluated in a drop tube furnace (DTF). Combustion experiments were conducted by using several sources with different particle sizes and excess air ratios under air-staging conditions to determine the optimized combustion conditions of high-ash coal, with an emphasis on the combustion efficiency and NOx emissions. The results show that the higher ash content results in a large amount of carbon remaining unburned, and that this effect is dominant when the largest particle size is used. Furthermore, the ash content of coal does affect the Char-NOx concentration, which decreases with the particle size. The results of this study suggest that an air-staged system can be useful to reduce the NOx emissions of high-ash coal and that control of the air stoichiometric ratio of the primary combustion zone (SR1) is effective for reducing NOx emissions, especially by considering unburned carbon contents.