Abstract: The study made in the paper is intended to provide a valuable reference for power coal cleaning plants for improving their economic performance. Following an introduction particularly to the technological processes employing movable-sieve jig, vertical/inclined lifting wheel separator, heavy medium vessel, compound dry separator and intelligent dry separator—five kinds of equipment commonly used in power coal plants nowadays, the paper makes a detailed analysis of the technical features and applicability of each washing process. It is pointed out that the selection of appropriate processes needs to be made based on overall consideration of raw coal washability, proneness of gangue to undergo degradation in water, upper/lower limit of size of separation and required indices of products, so as to allow the power coal plant to obtain maximized economic benefits.