Expanded bed adsorption (EBA) is an integrated technology for capturing target biomolecules directly from particle-containing feedstock. The adsorbents are the key base to achieve the EBA process and should be designed specially. In present work a new type of composite particles for EBA application was prepared with cellulose as the skeleton, and nickel powder as the densifier through the method of water-in-oil suspension thermal regeneration. Two fractions of spherical particles with mean sizes of 101-119 mu m and 168-217 mu m were obtained and the effects of nickel powder addition on the physical properties of composite particles were analyzed. The results indicated that the cellulose-nickel powder composite particles prepared have appropriate wet density of 1.14-1.78 g/mL, water content of 51-75%, porosity of 81-93%,Fore radius of 41-59 mu m, and specific surface area of 30-42 m(2)/mL of wet particles. The bed expansion factor at the range of 2-3 was investigated and correlated with Richardson-Zaki equation. In addition, the bed stability with composite particles prepared was demonstrated with the observation of liquid mixing in expanded bed. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.