According to the management plan for the project, the following items were to have been addressed during the first quarter of the project: coal sample demineralization; porosity determination technique development; sorption technique development; and shrink/swell technique development. All of the above items were addressed with some degree of progress. The demineralization work could not be fully carried out because of the problem in obtaining the final set of coals to be studied. Nevertheless, it was applied to a North Dakota lignite, and resulted in the recommendations as outlined in the section on demineralization. The porosimetry equipment is in place and awaits the arrival of the final sample set. The soprion balance has been suitably repaired and modified to permit controlled atmosphere sorption work. The only additional equipment not yet in place is a constant temperature bath required to maintain a 30/sup 0/C sample temperature. This is an off-the-shelf item, and will arrive soon. The sorption balance's own furnace turned out to be unsuitable for reliable low-temperature control. The results of the preliminary shrink/swell tests on a North Dakota lignite are reported. These techniques are ready to apply, as soon as the final coal samples arrive. Some work actually performed ahead of program schedule involved the development of reliable oxygen determination techniques. This included setting up the elemental analysis techniques for direct oxygen analysis, and testing the leading candidate techniques or measurement of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and carbonyl groups. 9 references, 1 figure.