The evolution of gases and volatiles during Sulcis coal pyrolysis under different atmospheres (N 2 and H 2 ) was investigated to obtaining a clean feedstock of combustion/gasification for electric power generation. Raw coal samples were slowly heated in temperature programmed mode up to 800°C at ambient pressure using a laboratory-scale quartz furnace coupled to a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) for evolved gas analysis. Under both pyrolysis and hydropyrolysis conditions the evolution of gases started at temperature as low as 100°C and was mainly composed by CO and CO 2 as gaseous products. With increasing temperature SO 2 , COS, and light aliphatic gases (CH 4 and C 2 H 4 ) were also released. The release of SO 2 took place up to 300°C regardless of the pyrolysis atmosphere, whilst the COS emissions were affected by the surrounding environment. Carbon oxide, CO 2 , and CH 4 continuously evolved up to 800°C, showing similar release pathways in both N 2 and H 2 atmospheres. Trace of HCNO was detected at low pyrolysis temperature solely in pure H 2 stream. Finally, the solid residues of pyrolysis (chars) were subjected to reaction with H 2 to produce CH 4 at 800°C under 5.0MPa pressure. The chars reactivity was found to be dependent on pyrolysis atmosphere, being the carbon conversions of 36% and 16% for charN 2 and charH 2 , respectively.