Question

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

Answer 1

Hint: Water gas is a mixture of gases produced by passing steam over red hot coke. Water gas is produced from syngas which is useful but is highly flammable and requires careful handling.

Complete step by step answer:
Synthesis gas poses a high risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thus, the water gas shift reaction is used to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide while producing additional hydrogen gas and produces water gas.
The production of synthesis gas is as follows:
${\text{C}} + {{\text{H}}_2}{\text{O}} \to {{\text{H}}_2} + {\text{CO}}$
The above reaction is endothermic and thus the reaction requires continuous heating to keep it going. To facilitate this, an air stream along with the vapor stream is passed through to carry out the combustion of carbon producing carbon dioxide and heat. The heat produced by the combustion provides the heat required for the formation of the synthetic gas.
The water gas shift reaction is then done to convert carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide and water
${\text{CO}} + {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}{\text{O}} \to {\text{C}}{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}} + {{\text{H}}_{\text{2}}}$
From the above details, we can clearly say that water gas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas.

Thus, the correct option is B.

Note:
We need to be careful to avoid confusion between water gas and producer gas. Both the water gas and producer gas are mixtures of various gases, namely nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc. Producer gas contains hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gas alongside some other gases like nitrogen and carbon dioxide. While water gas contains a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas.