Fundamental studies of the combustion characteristics and the de-HCl behavior of a single refuse-derived fuel(RDF) pellet were carried out to explain the de-HCl phenomena of RDF during fluidized bed combustion and to provide data for the development of high efficiency power generation technology using RDF previously. For further interpreting the devolatilization and the char combustion processes of RDF quantitatively, an unsteady combustion model for single RDF pellet, involving reaction rates, heat transfer and oxygen diffusion in the RDF pellet, was developed. Comparisons of simulation results with experimental data for mass loss of the RDF samples made from municipal solid waste, wood chips and poly-propylene when they were heated at 10K/min or put into the furnace under 1073K show the verifiability of the model. Using this model, the distributions of the temperature and the reaction ratio along the radius of RDF pellet during the devolatilization process and the char combustion process were presented, and discussion about the inference of heating rate on the combustion characteristics were performed.