Abstract: The pyrolysis reaction of a chinese coking coal "Feng-Feng" has been studied in this work.The overall process is treated based on a single first order decomposition model. The results show that the Arrhenious equation could only be used at the temperature lower than 700℃ with an activation energy E=46kJ/mol. The pyrolysis reaction was assumed to consist of a series of independent irreversible parallel reactions, a statistical distribution function f(E) for activation energy could be obtained. The results show that f(E) obeyed Gaussian normal statistcal distribution and the most probable activation energy was E=259kJ/mol. The volatile speciees of the coal were analyzed.The major constituent in all cases was found to be methane.It could be assumed that CH₄ came from two ways: pyrolysis reaction itself and the sccondary reactions or other volatile products.