The Paired Straight Hearth (PSH) furnace is a new coal-based reduction process for making metallized pellets for EAF or Smelting processes. The PSH process uses non-metallurgical coal as a reductant to convert iron oxides such as iron ore and steelmaking by-product oxides to DRI pellets. In this process, a multi-layer, nominally 120 mm tall bed of composite “green balls” made from oxide, coal and binder is built up and contained within a moving refractory hearth. The pellet bed absorbs radiant heat energy during exposure to the high temperature interior refractory surfaces of the PSH while generating a strongly reducing gas atmosphere in the bed that yields a highly metalized DRI product. This process operates at higher production rates and is expected to have lower energy consumption than conventional rotary hearth processes.