Pollutant emissions from chain grate stoker furnaces may be attributable, in the main, to poor combustion air distribution to the fuel burden. A better distribution of air may be achieved by modifying the aerodynamic features of the individual grate links. A combination of flow visualisation. computational modelling and velocity measurements is used to aid in the redesign of a traditional link design. The flow improvements to the redesigned link are demonstrated. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.