Chapter 1 (Introduction): The literature of fluidized bed combustion of coal until 1989 has been studied by reading the reviews of Agarwal and La Nauze (1989) and Prins (1987). Important steps are fragmentation, drying, evaporation and combustion. Much research has been done on combustion of coal particles, but fragmentation and drying has only been examined slightly.
Chapter 2 (Relevant up to date literature): Since 1989 research continued at high pace. Research has shifted from mass transfer to heat transfer, ignition and kinetics. More attention is paid to drying and evaporation, and some investigators investigated fragmentation.
Chapter 3 (Research suggestions): The models for fluidized bed combusters are despite previous research still far from perfect. Therefore further research is needed. Experimental as well as theoretical studies to drying times are needed, because the current models overestimate these times. More research on fragmentation is also indispensable. Finally investigation of CO/CO2-ratio at the particle interface as a function of particle diameter is needed, because current correlations are unaccurate and the data of Prins (1987) insufficient.
Chapter 4 (Letter to the editors): The article "Mass transfer around carbon particles burning in fluidised beds" of Guedes de Carvalho et al. is superfluous and erroneous. Therefore a letter to the editors has been written.