Hydrogen production

A process of reacting carbon monoxide with steam to give carbon dioxide and hydrogen carried out over a catalyst consisting essentially of iron oxide and at least one further oxide that is at least as difficult to reduce to metal as divalent chromium oxide, contains metal exerting a valency of at least 2 and is incapable of forming a mixed oxide having the spinel structure M.sup.II M.sup.III.sub.2 O.sub.4, where M.sup.II is a divalent metal and M.sup.III is a trivalent metal, wherein said further oxide is selected from the group consisting of calcium, strontium and barium and is present in an amount between 8-25% calculated as equivalent CaO, the content of spinel-forming oxide other than iron oxide being less than 1% w/w, the catalyst having the following properties:

• Surface area m.sup.2 g.sup.-1 :
• 50-100
• Helium density g cm.sup.-3 :
• 3.0-4.0
• Mercury density g cm.sup.-3 :
• 1.4-1.8
• Pore volume cm.sup.3 g.sup.-1 :
• 0.2-0.5
• Mean pore radium nm:
• 6-10.