The perchloroethylene coal cleaning process has proven to be very effective in removing both organic and pyritic sulfur from high-sulfur coals. The process removes 30%- 70% of the organic sulfur and 90%- 99% of the pyritic sulfur with very little loss (<1.0 wt%) of hydrocarbons and their heating value. The process has been investigated on a bench- scale and a fully continuous, mini-pilot scale (5 kg/hr). This paper discusses scientific and technological issues related to the process engineering and the reaction chemistry of the process. The objective of this paper is to report the status of the process development and to address the important issues of the process commercializability.