Coal-fueled direct carbon solid oxide fuel cell (DC-SOFC) is a very attractive electrochemical conversion device. However, coal contains a certain amount of ash, such as Al, Si, S, etc., which are toxicants for SOFC components. To solve the above problem, anthracite is pyrolyzed at 600 °C to obtain semi-coking coal results in better cell performance. The results show that the higher carbon gasification oxidation activity of semi-coking coal is due to the higher amount of fixed carbon and catalyst. Therefore, more fuel gas (CO) is available in the anode chamber for the Boudouard reaction. Also, the electrochemical performance of both coals as DC-SOFC fuel was compared using La0·4Sr0·6Co0·2Fe0·7Nb0·1O3-δ (LSCFN) as anode. The maximum power density (MPD) of the DC-SOFC with semi-coking coal is 596 mW cm−2 at 850 °C, much higher than that of the SOFC using anthracite (396 mW cm−2) as the fuel. Furthermore, at the same fuel content, the cell fueled with semi-coking coal has a longer discharge time (30 h), which shows a better stability.