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Purpose H2O, CO2 and CO are three main species in combustion systems which have high volume fractions. In addition, soot has strong absorption in the infrared band. Thus, H2O, CO2, CO and soot may take important roles in radiative heat transfer. To provide calculations with high accuracy, all of the participating media should be considered non-gray media. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study the effect of non-gray participating gases and soot on radiative heat transfer in an inhomogeneous and non-isothermal system.Design/methodology/approach To solve the radiative heat transfer, the fluid flow as well as the pressure, temperature and species distributions were first computed by FLUENT. The radiative properties of the participating media are calculated by the Statistical Narrow Band correlated K-distribution (SNBCK), which is based on the database of EM2C. The calculation of soot properties is based on the Mie scattering theory and Rayleigh theory. The radiative heat transfer is calculated by the discrete ordinate method (DOM).Findings Using SNBCK to calculate the radiative properties and DOM to calculate the radiative heat transfer, the influence of H2O, CO2, CO and soot on radiation heat flux to the wall in combustion system was studied. The results show that the global contribution of CO to the radiation heat flux on the wall in the kerosene furnace was about 2 per cent, but that it can reach up to 15 per cent in a solid fuel gasifier. The global contribution of soot to the radiation heat flux on the wall was 32 per cent. However, the scattering of soot has a tiny influence on radiation heat flux to the wall.Originality/value This is the first time H2O, CO2, CO and the scattering of soot were all considered simultaneously to study the radiation heat flux in combustion systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]