Effective utilization of biomass materials as a reducing agent in the ironmaking process is one of the key technologies for environmental protection. In this work, in order to study the possibility of effective use of woody biomass as a reducing agent in the carbon composite method, we carried out experiments of the thermal decomposition of woody powder and reduction of mixture of woody powder and iron oxide. Conversion ratio into H-2 from woody powder was almost the same between thermal decomposition of woody powder and reduction of the mixture sample. Conversion ratio into CO by reduction was larger than that by thermal decomposition. The final reduction degrees of mixture samples at the temperature from 1273 to 1573 K were 100%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.