A novel method for directly measuring the temperature history of mobile hot ferromagnetic particles (steel particles), substituting for reacting particles, in a binary-solid (reacting particles and inert particles) downflow is introduced. The temperature history of the hot steel particles can be obtained by measuring the temperature of the particles at different axial positions using magnetic fields that can separate the steel particles from other bed materials immediately and easily. Employing the magnetic marking method, magnetic sensors were used to detect the change in magnetic flux density in a given magnetic field, and the residence time of the steel particles was also measured. The cross-sectional averaged particle-to-bed heat transfer coefficients were calculated from the experimental results using simple heat balance equations. The measured temperature data have a relatively wide error range; however, the average temperature curves derived from the average particle-to-bed heat transfer coefficients agreed with the temperature plots. Therefore, the experimental method of this study is applicable to the measurement of the particle temperature in a binary-solid downflow. The results showed that there is strong correlation between the particle-to-bed heat transfer coefficients and normalized collision frequency under the laminar gas flow conditions. (C) 2013 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.