Iron ore pellets is one of the most refined products for companies such as LKAB and it is therefore a global need for research in the area in order to optimize the production and improve quality. This work aim at modelling and optimizing the drying zone of a travelling grate pelletizing plant and to start with, a model of velocity and temperature distribution in the up-draught drying zone is developed with aid of computational fluid dynamics. The velocity distribution in the porous bed is described by laws of fluid dynamics in porous media. The dominating heat transfer mechanism is convection and two energy equations are required since the porous media region contains both fluid and solid. Result from simulations show a rapid cooling of air due to the high specific surface area in the porous material. Conclusions are that it is possible to simulate convective heat transfer within a porous media in ANSYS CFX 10.0. There are however some limitations when using the diffusive transport equation as the solid phase energy equation that need further investigation. Moisture content and condensation in the bed are not included in the present model and is therefore subject to future work