Abstract: Method of stripping SO.sub.2 (sulfur dioxide) from flue gases by passing the SO.sub.2 containing gas through to a bed of particles to fluidize the particles and to form a fluidized bed, injecting a reaction chemical into the bed and reacting it with SO.sub.2 in the fluidized bed thereby to form particles of a combined product, combining the particles with other such particles in the fluidized bed to form bigger pellets and to exhaust gases from the bed relatively free of SO.sub.2 at a temperature as low as possible but high enough to prevent the condensation of the moisture present in the gas stream by adjusting the concentration and feeding rate of the reaction chemical. During that process at least some of the pellets so formed are discarded from the bed. In the preferred arrangement the reaction chemicals are injected into the bed in an aqueous medium and gas entering the bed is at elevated temperature in the order of 200.degree.-300.degree. C.