A 40-mm sound-assisted fluidized bed filter/afterburner for hot gas clean-up has been characterized in terms of bed saturation time, total amount of collected particles, fraction of fine particles permanently adhered on the coarse bed particles, and efficiency of using a regeneration strategy based on mechanical (attrition) and/or chemical (combustion) action. Experiments have been carried out at ambient temperature as well as at 850 degrees C, with and without application of sound and varying bed height and amount of dust in the gas flow. The controversial effect of the application of sound: not only enhancement of particles interactions but also increase of fines permanently adhering on bed coarse particles is presented and discussed. A simplified model has been developed to obtain rough predictions of bed height which maximize fine particles capture, bed saturation time, total amount of particles collected in the bed, fraction of fine particles loading present as adhered particles on bed particles. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 55: 3066-3075, 2009