The spouting characteristics with ambient air of cylindrical wood pellets, 6.5mm in diameter and 11.1 +/- 4.1mm long, were investigated using a transparent 152.4-mm diameter semi-circular cone-based cylindrical column. Despite the previously unexplored shape of the pellets in the spouted bed mode, the measured minimum spouting velocities at different bed heights, the maximum spoutable bed height and the mean spout diameter above the conical base were all well represented by equations from the literature developed mainly for more rounded particles. Pellet attrition was found to be severe, so that the possible torrefaction of the pellets by the spouting technique without sacrifice of their integrity appears to be unlikely. (c) 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering