Patent ID: 7931731

Claim:
A process to prepare elemental iron by contacting an iron ore feed with a reducing gas at a pressure of between 1 and 10 bar to obtain iron and an off-gas, including preparing the reducing gas by performing the following steps: (a) partially oxidizing a mixture comprising a solid or liquid carbonaceous fuel and oxygen at a pressure of between 10 and 80 bar, thereby obtaining a gas comprising CO 2 , H 2 S, H 2 and CO; (b) removing CO 2 and H 2 S from the gas obtained in step (a) to obtain an intermediate gas comprising H 2 and CO; (c) supplying at least a portion of the intermediate gas obtained in step (b) to a H 2 -selective membrane so as to obtain a H 2 -rich permeate gas and a CO-rich retentate; (d) heating the H 2 -rich permeate to obtain a heated H 2 -rich permeate as the reducing gas.