Abstract: A method of removing particulates and sulfur oxides from a hot gas by controllably contacting the hot gas in a first spray-dryer zone with a selected chemically reactive absorbent for the sulfur oxides and then sequentially contacting the hot gas with the absorbent in a second fabric filter zone. The preferred absorbents are calcium oxide, calcium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate and sodium hydroxide. The selected absorbent dissolved or dispersed in an aqueous medium is controllably introduced into the spray dryer, together with the hot gas, in an amount and at a rate to react in the spray dryer with only a portion of the sulfur oxides in the hot gas to produce a dry particulate reaction product consisting of calcium or sodium sulfites and sulfates, together with sufficient unreacted absorbent of enhanced reactivity for subsequent reaction in the second zone with the remaining sulfur oxides, all being entrained in a substantially water-unsaturated gas of reduced sulfur oxide content.