In this paper, the pyrolysis of Honehe Lignite in N2 and N2-Methanol atmospheres were investigated on a fixed-bed reactor. The methanol flow rate, pressure, temperature and holding time were studied. The maximum of coal tar yields 12.01% (with methanol injected in) and 9.61% (absence of methanol) were achieved on the conditions of 520°C, 0.5MPa, N2 flow rate 50ml/min, methanol flow rate 0.1ml/min and holding time 20min, and the relative growing rate was about 25.0%. The gas from coal pyrolysis was detected by GC, and the coal tar was reprocessed and then detected by GC-MS. While the solid char was detected by IR to study the change of oxygen functional group during coal pyrolysis in N2-Methanol atmosphere. Compared with that pyrolysis in N2 atmosphere, the components, characteristics and properties of coal tar, gas and solid char varied a lot. The results showed that the injection of methanol into the system changed the products yields and distribution. The results showed that the total yields of phenol, cresol and xylenol (short for PCX) in the Acidic were about 1.93% and 1.15% (daf) in two atmospheres respectively, the PCX yields with methanol injected was about 1.67 times higher than that absence of methanol.
