communication with the fluidized bed is replaced by a plurality of similarly sized cyclones arranged in parallel so that the residence time in each of the cyclones is greater than it was in the original system thereby greatly improving the recovery of particulate material while greatly reducing the energy consumption of the system application_number US 84739897 A description in the prior art it is typical in a fluidized bed system to connect two or three cyclones in series to separate out the particulate material in the gas and return it to the fluidized bed a two stage series cyclone system is shown in fig1 in which the particulate laden gas from the fluid bed enters the first stage cyclone 10 at the inlet 14 and passes through the first stage cyclone 10 into the second stage cyclone 12 some particulate material is separated out of the gas stream in the first cyclone 10 and is returned to the fluid bed not shown so that there is less particulate material to be separated out in the second stage cyclone 12 as the gas continues to flow through the second stage cyclone 12 more particulate material is separated out of the gas and is returned to the fluid bed from the second stage cyclone 12 the cleaned gas then leaves the outlet 16 of the second stage cyclone 12 so in this system the entire gas flow flows through both cyclones 10 12.