Book excerpt: Demand of sponge iron and pre-reduced pellets for the manufacture of different varieties of steel is increasing day by day and new solid reductant based sponge iron plants are being commissioned. In the existing blast furnace an increase in production by at least 25 to 35% can be achieved by using pre reduced iron ore. Pre-reduced iron ore pellets have been established as a good substitute for steel scrap in an electric arc furnace which enhances the productivity of the arc furnace. Also majority of fines which are generated during the course of handling, mining, transportation etc are exported at a through away price which need to be utilized by making iron ore pellets for sponge iron making. A lot of investigations have been carried out on direct reduction process of iron oxides by carbonaceous materials, but little work has been done on the characterization of properties and reduction behavior of iron ore of some mines of Orissa. In the present project work, an attempt has been made to study the reduction behavior and kinetics of fired iron ore pellets. The effect of different reduction parameters such as temperature (850-10000C), time (15-120 min.), reductant quality, pellets Vs lump, mixing of particles of different sizes at different ratios for pellet preparation etc. on the reduction behavior of iron ore pellets. These form the subject matter of the thesis. First chapter gives the introduction of the subject. It speaks about the need of DRI industry, scope, present status and future planning of DRI industry in India, world wise DRI production, etc. It also presents the mechanism of direct reduction process. The second chapter shows the literature review. The third chapter deals with planning of experiments, selection of raw materials, preparation of samples, preparation of iron ore pellets, experimental procedure for characterization of different chemical and strength properties of the selected iron ore lump, proximate analysis of selected noncoking coals, ev.