A mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen produced by passing steam over hot carbon (coke):
The reaction is strongly endothermic but the reaction can be used in conjunction with that for producer gas for making fuel gas. The main use of water gas before World War II was in producing hydrogen for the Haber process. Here the above reaction was combined with the water-gas shift reaction to increase the amount of hydrogen:
Most hydrogen for the Haber process is now made from natural gas by steam reforming.