Abstract: Pulse combustion drying is a novel, efficient drying method which makes use of a strong oscillating flow field with high temperature caused by a pulse combustor to dry materials.　In this paper, the advances in research on pulse combustion drying were reviewed and the various forms of dryer with pulse combustor were introduced and discussed.　The data features of pulse combustion drying from literature in terms of its energy consumption, drying rate,scope of feedstocks and quality retention were compared with some conventional drying processes. The exsiting problems and the trends in research and development were also discussed.