A new model for predicting radiation heat transfer in circulating fluidized bed combustors is proposed. The model assumes two phase structure, the flow at the wall dominated by streamers of clusters traveling mostly downward, interspersed with periods where there is upwards flow of a dilute suspension. Also, the model assumes the intensity distribution to be semi-isotropic in the forward and backward direction. The predictions are in good agreement with the experimental results from the literature. Finally, a parametric study is performed to show the effect of different bed parameters on radiative heat transfer. The results indicate that suspension temperature, wall temperature, wall emissivity, particle emissivity, and suspension density have significant influence on the radiation heat transfer coefficient. (c) 2005 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.