The development of swirl burners for bagasse combustion has been outlined in recent conferences (Dixon and Steindl, 1991; Dixon, Smit and Steindl, 1990). For the combustion of solid coal, the fluidised bed combustor (FBC) has made great advances in commercial power generation operation (Dry, 1991). This technology represents a potential alternative for the combustion of bagasse. Its application to sugar mills has been foreshadowed at an earlier conference (Sheridan, 1985). Bagasse has unusual properties, with its low density and high moisture content and has been considered a difficult material to fluidise. However with the correct choice of fluidising conditions, fluidised combustion should be possible. This paper describes some preliminary cold model experiments to test the technical feasibility of a fluidised combustor for sugar mill bagasse.