This study examined the effects of variations in alkali and alkaline earth metal content, bed material diameter, static bed height and gas velocity in a fluidized-bed combustion process to understand the distribution of heavy metals in bottom ash after agglomeration/defluidization. A smaller diameter bed material increased the relative abundance of small particle sizes in the bottom ash due to attrition and thermal impact at high temperature. The addition of Na led to an increase in the large particle abundance of the bottom ash, likely due to the formation of a eutectic with a low melting point, causing agglomeration. The addition of Ca inhibited the agglomeration/defluidization and increased the abundance of large particles in the bottom ash. In general, heavy metal concentrations increased when the bottom ash size was smaller than 0.59 mm and larger than 0.84 mm. Regarding the different fluidization parameters, the bottom ash had the lowest concentration of heavy metals at 1.5 U-mf, an H/D of 2.1 and a bed material (silica) particle size of 0.645 mm. The concentrations of heavy metals in the bottom ash after Ca addition were higher than of those without Na or with Na only. Addition of Ca prolonged the operation time of fluidization and increased the feed quantity of heavy metal, helping the bed material adsorb more heavy metal. Therefore, the addition of Ca not only prolonged the fluidization time, reducing agglomeration/defluidization, but also resulted in a higher adsorption of heavy metals by the bed material, reducing their emission. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.