Abstract The reduction of Fe 2O 3 powder at the top layer by the volatiles from high volatile (HV) bituminous coal at the bottom layer of a multilayer powder geometry including a separating alumina layer was studied. The simultaneous effects of the alumina layer thickness, time, temperature and the weight of coal on the amount of reduction and coal devolatilization were studied by implementing a rotatable central composite design (CCD) based on response surface methodology (RSM). RSM successfully revealed the inflential operating variables and the effects of the interactions between the variables on the reduction of Fe 2O 3 and devolatilization of coal. The phase evaluation of various iron oxide phases and metallic iron was obtained through XRD. The XRD results showed that the reduction of pure Fe2O 3 to metallic iron proceeded through a stepwise reduction via Fe3O 4 and FeO. It was also found that the reduction of iron oxide by coal volatiles occurred internally uniformly at the first stage of reduction to form Fe3O 4; however, the behavior became nearly topochemical as the reduction proceeded.

Keywords