Non‐spherical particles are commonly found when processing biomass or municipal solid waste (MSW). In this study, cylindrical particles are used as generic non‐spherical particles and are co‐fluidized with small spherical particles. X‐ray particle tracking velocimetry (XPTV) is used to track the 3D particle position and velocity of a single tagged cylindrical particle over a long time period in the binary fluidized bed. The effects of superficial gas velocity (u_f), cylindrical particle mass fraction (α), particle sphericity (Φ), and bed material size on the cylindrical tracer particle location and velocity are investigated.

Overall, the cylindrical particles are found in the near‐wall region more often than in the bed center region. Increasing the superficial gas velocity u_f provide a slight improvement in the uniformity of the vertical and horizontal distributions. Increasing the cylindrical particle mass fraction α causes the bed mixing conditions to transition from complete mixing into partial mixing.