In the past few decades, the applicability of spout fluidized beds has been augmented immensely. This is not only due to the fact that these systems combine characteristics of spouted and fluidized beds but also to their efficacy to handle chemical transformations involving simultaneous heat and mass transfer in combination with varying particles size. This is important in applications such as granulation, coating, drying, pyrolysis and combustion etc. The present work aims at critically analyzing the recent advances in experimental and numerical studies of spout fluidized beds. Initially, the discussion will concentrate on experimental studies emphasizing variation of minimum spouting and spout-fluidizing velocity, operating pressure, mixing and jet penetration length. Furthermore, flow regime maps will be discussed. Subsequently, the application of various numerical modeling strategies is highlighted. Also, recommendations are given for future work required in experimental and modeling studies. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.