The processing technique employing a suspension or fluidization of small solid particles in a vertically rising stream of fluid—usually gas—so that fluid and solid come into intimate contact. This is a tool with many applications in the petroleum and chemical process industries. There are major possibilities of even greater growth and utility in the future. Suspensions of solid particles by vertically rising liquid streams are of lesser interest in modern processing, but have been shown to be of use, particularly in liquid contacting of ion-exchange resins. However, they come in this same classification and their use involves techniques of liquid settling, both free and hindered (sedimentation), classification, and density flotation.