Abstract: In the operation of a slagging combustor, including an apertured baffle defining part of a cylindrical combustion chamber having a head end which includes a nozzle for injection of sulfur-containing particulate carbonaceous material to be combusted in a whirling oxidant flow field, there is injected a particulate sulfur sorbent at the aperture of the baffle towards the nozzle to react with released sulfur. The sulfur sorbent is injected into the combustion zone from a location near the exit end thereof. Fuel is injected near the center of the head end. A relatively fuel-rich recirculation zone is established and maintained along the longitudinal axis of the combustion chamber surrounded by a relatively oxygen-rich annular region.