Non-isothermal thermogravimetric experiments were performed to study the pyrolysis characteristics and oxy- fuel combustion characteristics of two kinds of bituminous coal. The results indicate that the pyrolysis characteristics of pulverized coal have significant effects on the mechanism of ignition in oxy-fuel atmosphere. If the coal yields the volatiles earlier and has higher pyrolysis index D, the heterogeneous ignition converts to the homogeneous ignition with the oxygen content increasing. But if the coal yields the volatiles later and has lower index D, the mechanism of ignition does not change. After the change of ignition mechanism, the ignition temperature of coal with higher pyrolysis reactivity varies greatly, while the burnout temperature is hardly influenced. The combustion index S gradually increases with the rise of oxygen concentration, but at the same oxygen concentration, the indexes of different coals are similar, indicating that the transformation of ignition mechanism has little influence on index S.