A coal-water fuel (CWF) or slurry droplet generator has been developed for use in laboratory-scale studies of CWF combustion phenomena. The droplet generator design is based on ink-jet printer technology and offers the capability of delivering, on demand, a stream of slurry droplets of uniform size and composition. To date, reliable operation has been achieved for slurries with coal loadings up to 40% by weight. Monodisperse constant diameter CWF droplet streams have been produced with droplet diameters ranging from < 100 ..mu..m up to 300 ..mu..m. The droplet generator currently is being employed to investigate the initial stages of CWF droplet combustion. 5 refs., 9 figs., 4 tabs.