An extensive experimental campaign has been carried out in a hot gas filtration test facility so as to test several filtering elements and configurations, particularly, three different types of bag filters and one ceramic candle. The facility was designed to operate under a wide range of conditions, thus providing an excellent tool for the investigation of hot gas filtration applications for the advanced electrical power generation industry such as IGCC, PFBC or fuel cell technologies. Relevant parameters for the characterisation and optimization of the performance of the filters have been studied for a variety of operating conditions such as filtration velocity, particle concentration, pressure and temperature among others. Pressure drop across the filter, cleaning pulse interval, baseline pressure drop, filtration efficiency and durability of the filter have been investigated for each type considered and dependences on parameters have been established. On top of that, optimal operating conditions and cleaning strategies were determined. The tests results show that bag filters are a suitable alternative for the hot gas filtration due to the better performance and the high efficiency observed, which makes them suitable for industrial applications operating under high temperature high pressure conditions considered within the study (200-370 degrees C and 4-7.5 barg, respectively). (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.