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In this work, a hybrid method based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) combined with smoothed profile method (SPM) is proposed for simulating the fluid flow and heat transfer in particulate systems. LBM is used to evaluate the flow field, while the temperature distribution is computed by a finite difference method. The no-slip and constant temperature boundary conditions on particle surfaces are treated with SPM. The following benchmarking studies are considered to validate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method: natural convection in a square cavity with a heated circular cylinder, natural convection in a concentric annulus, and the sedimentation of single and two circular particles in a long narrow container. In all the studies, the results obtained from the present technique based on hybrid method show good agreement with the previously published results and those given by LBM combined with SPM based on the double-population model. After evaluating the central processing unit time taken by the two methods, it was found that the proposed method is about 50% more computationally efficient than the method based on double-population model in all the simulation cases considered in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]