In this paper, an experimental study on the primary fragmentation and attrition of 5 limestones in a fluidized bed was conducted. The intensity of fragmentation and attrition were measured in the same apparatus but at different fluidizing velocities. It was found that the averaged size of the particles decreased by about 10-20% during the fragmentation process. The important factors for particle comminution include limestone types, heating rate, calcination condition and ambient CO2 concentration. Fragmentation mainly occurred in the first a few minutes in the fluidized bed and it was more intense than that in the muffle furnace at the same temperature. The original size effect was ambiguous, depending on the limestone type. The comminution caused by attrition mainly occurred during calcination process rather than sulphation process. The sulphation process was fragmentation and attrition resisted. The attrition rate of sulphate was similar to that of lime in trend, decaying exponentially with time, but was one-magnitude-order smaller than that of lime. Present experimental results indicate that fragmentation mechanism of the limestone is dominated by CO2 release instead of thermal stress. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.