Water–gas shift reaction

A reversible reaction in which carbon monoxide and water vapor form carbon dioxide and hydrogen. It adjusts hydrogen yield and carbon monoxide levels in industrial gas streams.

Chemical equilibrium: A state in which forward and reverse reaction rates are equal, leaving concentrations constant overall. The reaction’s reversible conversion reaches an equilibrium set by temperature and gas composition.
Steam reforming: A process that reacts hydrocarbons with steam to produce hydrogen-rich synthesis gas. Its raw gas contains carbon monoxide that is converted by the shift reaction.
Carbon monoxide: A colorless, odorless gas composed of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom; it is toxic and combustible. It is the carbon-containing reactant and a contaminant removed by the shift reaction.
Friedrich Bergius: A German chemist who developed high-pressure coal hydrogenation and received the 1931 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His high-pressure process exemplified the industrial chemistry that relied on controlled hydrogen-rich gas mixtures.
Reverse water–gas shift reaction: The reaction of carbon dioxide with hydrogen to produce carbon monoxide and water. It runs opposite to the water–gas shift reaction and consumes hydrogen rather than producing it.
Le Chatelier's principle: A rule predicting how an equilibrium shifts when a system experiences a change in conditions. Adding steam or removing products shifts the reaction toward hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
Hydrogen production: Industrial and laboratory methods for producing molecular hydrogen. The shift reaction raises hydrogen yield from synthesis gas.
Water vapor: The gaseous phase of water, present in air and in many industrial process streams. Steam supplies the oxygen and hydrogen atoms needed to convert carbon monoxide.
Bosch–Meiser urea process: An industrial process for synthesizing urea from ammonia and carbon dioxide under pressure. Hydrogen production by shifted gas supported ammonia supply for the expanding nitrogen-chemicals industry.
Dry reforming of methane: A reaction of methane with carbon dioxide that produces carbon monoxide and hydrogen. It consumes carbon dioxide while producing carbon monoxide, opposite to the shift reaction’s carbon conversion.

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