•CFD-DEM formulation, including heat and mass transfer and long-range forces is described.•Implementation of CFD-DEM in simulation of different processes is discussed.•Different applications, including drying, coating, mixing combustion, gasification and etc. are discussed. With increasing the computational resources, the number of publications about coupled computational fluid dynamics – discrete element method is in the rise in the recent years. This technique is very useful, especially in simulation of fluid-solid flows in process engineering. This paper provides an introduction to CFD-DEM modeling in process engineering systems, including heat and mass transfer and long range forces, and reviews the major researches in simulation of two-phase processes such as drying, coating, granulation, crystallization, chemical reactions (including combustion, gasification and pyrolysis) and mixing. Details of implementing unresolved CFD-DEM in these applications are explained in details and major assumptions and findings are discussed.