This paper presents a novel ironmaking technology using biomass and iron oxide. The biomass instead of
coke was mixed together with iron ore powder, water, limestone and bentonite for the production of
Fe2O3 briquettes. The sintering process and direct reduction of briquettes were simultaneously con-
ducted in the same reactor. Briquettes with different composition were isothermally reduced directly to
metallic iron with H2-CO mixtures at different temperatures (ranging from 900 to 1100 C) and reaction
time (30-60 min) to investigate the effects of briquettes composition, reduction temperature, reaction
time and reducing gas composition on the quality of metallic iron. The results show that the increase of
reduction temperature, reaction time and H2 content of the reducing gas are favorable for the quality
of pig iron, within the experimental conditions. At a reduction temperature of 1100 C and reaction time
of 60 min, the Fe content in product achieves the maximum 94.7%.