Improvement in fluidization quality and mass transfer rate was made to the pulsed fluidized bed for the fluidization of biomass particles without the need of inert bed materials by modifying the rectangular cross-section to a tapered bottom section to eliminate the dead-zones. Batch biomass drying tests were performed as an indirect indicator of gas-solid contact efficiency and mass transfer performance. Compared to the original design, biomass particles were able to be fluidized in the tapered column at a wider range of gas pulsation frequencies with significantly reduced channeling and gas bypassing. Faster drying and improved mass transfer were also observed and confirmed by measured instantaneous drying rate and final moisture content of the biomass sample. A model based on two-phase theory for biomass drying in fluidized bed verified such findings, where under the same operating condition fluidized bed with tapered bottom showed higher effective diffusion coefficients than the original design. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.