Hydrogen production because it is more efficient than separate hydrogen, steam and power plants. Air Products recently built an integrated steam reforming / co-generation plant in Port Arthur, Texas. Hydrogen production from natural gas or other hydrocarbons is achieved by partial oxidation. A fuel-air or fuel-oxygen mixture is partially combusted resulting in a hydrogen rich syngas. Hydrogen and carbon monoxide are obtained via the water-gas shift reaction. Carbon dioxide can be co-fed to lower the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio. The partial oxidation reaction occurs when a substoichiometric fuel-air mixture or fuel-oxygen is partially combusted in a reformer or partial oxidation reactor.
Law of definite proportions proportion was given by Joseph Proust in 1794. This observation was first made by the English theologian and chemist Joseph Priestley, and Antoine Lavoisier, a French nobleman and chemist centered on the process of combustion. The law of definite proportions might seem obvious to the modern chemist, inherent in the very definition of a chemical compound. At the end of the 18th century, however, when the concept of a chemical compound had not yet been fully developed, the law was novel. In fact, when first proposed, it was a controversial statement and was opposed by other chemists, most notably Proust's