Biomass processing integrated with reduction of metal ores, systems for these processes, and products made therefrom

Abstract

Disclosed are improved processes and systems to produce metals, carbon, CO, or H2, starting with a metal ore and biomass. Raw biomass can be co-fed with a metal ore into a chemical reactor for simultaneous biomass pyrolysis along with metal oxide reduction using intermediates generated during the biomass pyrolysis. The carbon made by pyrolysis is directly utilized in situ to reduce a metal oxide to a metal. Some variations provide a process for reducing a metal oxide with biomass, comprising: feeding a biomass feedstock and a starting metal oxide into a chemical reactor to pyrolyze the biomass feedstock and to reduce the starting metal oxide, thereby generating (i) a carbon product, (ii) a metal product comprising a metal or a metal oxide having a lower oxidation state than the starting oxidation state, (iii) and a reaction off-gas; and recovering the carbon product and the metal product, individually or in combination.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.