coal exits from the pulverizer 60 and is conveyed to a coal gas separation device 70 where the pulverized coal is separated from the gas the mixed turbine exhaust gas which was conveyed to the coal pulverizer 34 removes the moisture from the pulverized coal a direct fired air heater not shown may be utilized to supply heat to the coal pulverizer exhaust gas input line if hot turbine exhaust gas is not available the coal gas separation device 70 is advantageously a fabric filter a cyclonic separation device an electrostatic precipitator or a combination thereof and separates the pulverized coal from the turbine exhaust gas conveying stream if device 70 is a fabric filter it may be a single module intermediate pressure pulse jet collector with automated cleaning of the filter bags in an on line cleaning mode the device 70 may include a pre cleaner inlet to reduce the grain loading to the bags such a design provides for both separation of particles from the gas stream and reduces the gas stream velocity by introducing a cross flow gas pattern into the side of the device 70 a compressed nitrogen system 100 may be provided for device 70 to provide nitrogen pulse jets to dislodge accumulated pulverized coal from the bags of the fabric filter the nitrogen pulse jets also provide a nitrogen blanket over the pulverized coal to reduce the chance of combustion infiltration of air into the device 70 is also reduced by the positive pressure established by the hot pulverizer fan 50 the pulverized coal separated from the exhaust gas in device 70 is collected in hoppers and then conveyed to pulverized coal.