Abstract: China's energy structure is dominated by coal, and the burning of coal produces a large amount of harmful sulfur dioxide, which brings great harm to the ecology, so the technology of determining the content of sulfur element in each form is incredibly important for the clean utilization of coal and the process of desulfurization.This paper starting from the problems of traditional sulfur content analysis technology, introduces the state of sulfur in coal and the environmental problems, analyzes the significance of sulfur detection technology for coal quality control and environmental protection, and summarizes the current status of sulfur detection technology, mainly in the traditional gravimetric method, coulometric titration, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, and the new plasma emission spectrometry detection technology, and compares the differences between the five analytical techniques.The existing problems and the development trend of the current stage are prospected.