4) HYDROGEN-CO SEPERATION.

Hydrogen-CO Seperation is include in shift reaction. Shift reaction is process that converts carbon
monoxide to carbon dioxide, while generating more hydrogen.

It takes place in two stages. In the first, the high temperature shift reaction, the gas is mixed with steam
and passed over an iron/chromium(III) oxide catalyst at ca 700 K in a fixed bed reactor. This decreases
the carbon monoxide concentration from 11%:

In the second stage, the low temperature shift reaction, the mixture of gases is passed over a copper-
zinc catalyst at ca 500 K. The carbon monoxide concentration is further reduced to 0.2%.

The reaction is done in two stages for several reasons. The reaction is exothermic. However, at high
temperature, the exit concentration of carbon monoxide is still quite high, due to equilibrium control.
The copper catalyst used in the low temperature stage is very sensitive to high temperatures, and could
not operate effectively in the high temperature stage. Thus, the bulk of the reaction is carried out at
high temperature to recover most of the heat. The gas is then removed at low temperature, where the
equilibrium is much more favourable, on the very active but unstable copper catalyst.

The gas mixture now contains about 18% carbon dioxide which is removed by scrubbing the gas with a
solution of a base, using scrubber. One that is favoured is an organic base (in the carbon dioxide
absorber), a solution of an ethanolamine, often 2,2'-(methylimino)bis-ethanol (N-methyl
diethanolamine).

The carbon dioxide is released on heating the solution in the carbon dioxide stripper). Much of it is
liquefied and sold, for example, for carbonated drinks, as a coolant for nuclear power stations and for
promoting the growth of plants in greenhouses.
The last traces of oxides of carbon are removed by passing the gases over a nickel catalyst at 600 K:

This process is known as methanation. A gas is obtained of typical composition: 74% hydrogen, 25%
nitrogen, 1% methane, together with some argon.