Unsuccessful prediction of particle elutriation in fluidized beds is in part due to the negligence of electrostatic effects. In addition, lack of properly designed experiments makes it difficult to quantify the effects of electrostatics on particle elutriation. In this work, the CFD-DEM modeling approach has been used for the first time to investigate particle elutriation in a 2D fluidized bed taking into account electrostatic effects. Model predictions show that electrostatic charges on particles suppress particle elutriation and even eliminate elutriation completely at relatively higher charge levels. The study further shows that electrostatic effects result in the increase of the fluidized bed height and axial velocity of small particles in the free board which ultimately promotes particle elutriation. However, the presence of agglomerates caused by electrostatic attractions is dominant, thus the decrease in the concentration of small particles in the free board suppresses particle elutriation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.