The invention discloses equipment and a process using methanol splitting decomposition to produce direct reduced iron and belongs to the technical field of production equipment and the process of reduced iron. The equipment and the process are used for using methanol splitting decomposition to produce the direct reduced iron. According to the technical scheme, a gas based reduced vertical furnace is the main body of the equipment, and the gas based reduced vertical furnace comprises a lifting machine, a material storehouse, a tail gas separating storehouse, a reduction pipe, a spiral material conveying mechanism, a methanol splitting decomposition pipe, gas combustors, a methanol heat exchanging box body, a hydrogen heat exchanging box body and a cooling tank. Methanol enters the methanol splitting decomposition pipe through a methanol vaporizer and the methanol heat exchanging box body; the reduced iron is used as a catalyst to achieve complete splitting decomposition, and then reducing agents including carbon monoxide and hydrogen are produced; the methanol and the nitrogen, slight methane and carbon monoxide constitute an adjustable carburizing atmosphere to product high-carbon reduced iron; and meanwhile, near zero emission of carbon dioxide is achieved. The methanol is used as the raw material of the gas based reduced vertical furnace to produce the high-carbon reduced iron, the combination of coal chemical industry and the direct reduced iron is achieved, so that a new path for replacing natural gas to produce the high-carbon reduced iron is developed.