A novel circulating granular bed filter with conical louver plates (CGBF-CLPs) was designed to remove dust particulates from the flue gas stream of a coal power plant. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the performance of the CGBF-CLPs. Dust collection efficiency and pressure drop data were analyzed to determine better operating conditions. The effect of solid mass flow rate, collector particle size and dust/collector particles separator types on the dust collection efficiency and pressure drop in the CGBF-CLPs were investigated in this study. The solid mass How rate (B) varied from 15.59 +/- 0.44 to 20.36 +/- 0.68 g s(-1) and the initial average collector particle sizes were 1500 and 795 mu m, respectively. Two types of separators, a cyclone and an inertial one, for separating the dust and collector particles were used in the CGBF-CLPs system. An Air Personal Sampler (SKC PCXR8) was used to determine the inlet and outlet dust concentrations. A differential pressure transmitter and data acquisition system were used to measure the pressure drop. Experimental results showed that the highest dust collection efficiency was 99.59% when the solid mass flow rate was 17.08 +/- 0.48 g s(-1) and the initial average collector particle size was 795 mu m with the cyclone type separator. The results showed that the attrition fines of the original collector particles returning to the granular bed filter (GBF) reduced bed voidage. This phenomenon significantly increased the dust collection efficiency in the CGBF-CLPs. As a consequence, a bigger bed voidage creates a lower dust collection efficiency in the GBE (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.