PURPOSE: To provide a means for preventing the sedimentation and deposition of a solid fuel during the shut-down of a gasifier using a solid fuel and for smoothly starting up the gasifier at the restart.

CONSTITUTION: Purging gas feed pipes 6 and 9 communicating with the blowing tip of a nozzle are secured to the body of the nozzle and blow purging gas onto the tip of the nozzle used for blowing a solid fuel and affected by the heat in the gasifier during the-shut-down. The start of purging can be automatically performed by making the comtmunication of the purge gas with the feed pipe in association with the stop signal of the gasifier. When the gasifier is stopped, the powder in the burner or the nozzle is purged with nitrogen sent from the purge pipe 12 to remove the residual coal causing nozzle plugging.