Question

Water gas is a mixture of?
A. Carbon monoxide and oxygen
B. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen
C. Hydrogen and oxygen
D. Hydrogen and nitrogen

Answer 1

Hint: Water gas is generally produced from synthetic gas which is basically a fuel gas. This gas is also used in the preparation of ammonia or methanol and it itself is a product of coal gasification and the main application of this gas is electricity generation.

Complete answer:
Water gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen which is produced from synthetic gas. It is a very useful product but it also requires very much care while handling due to its flammability and carbon monoxide poisoning. Water gas is used to oxidize the carbon monoxide while producing additional hydrogen which further results in the formation of water gas.
Water gas is produced by passing a steam over a red hot carbon fuel in the form of coke and the reaction of water gas can be shown as follows:
${{H}_{2}}O+C\to {{H}_{2}}+CO$
This reaction is endothermic in nature i.e. heat is evolved during the reaction and having $\Delta H$value to be positive i.e, $\Delta H=+131kjmo{{l}^{-1}}$.
Hence from the above reaction we can consider that water gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

Thus option B is the correct answer.

Note:
Water gas shift reaction was discovered by Italian physicist Felice Fontana in 1780 and it firstly made in England with the help of blowing steam through white-hot coke. Water gas is used to remove carbon monoxide from fuel cell applications and also in Fischer-Tropsch process.