Fluidised beds have very good thermal properties and provide an excellent environment in which to carry out combustion reactions. The potential they offer for improvement in industrial power production schemes is reviewed. The lower operating temperature of fluid-bed combustors reduces the quantity of pollutants produced and sulphur oxides can be retained if crushed dolomite or limestone is added to the bed. Fluid-beds can also be used for the incineration of municipal and industrial wastes at acceptably low levels of environmental pollution. Shallow fluid-bed heat exchangers have particular advantage in recovering waste heat from gases. The advantageous thermal properties of fluidised solids could be exploited in energy storage schemes and offer an attractive medium for metallurgical heat treatment processes where previously more hazardous media have had to be used.