NOVELTY - A compact water gas shift process includes passing steam reforming effluent to a series of shift reaction zones, which exothermically react the carbon monoxide over a shift catalyst in the presence of an excess water to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen.    USE - For removing carbon monoxide from a hydrogen stream in the production of electrical power from a fuel cell.    ADVANTAGE - The invention prevents damage of proton exchange membrane in the fuel cell.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A compact water gas shift process involves passing a feedstream comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide to a first water spray zone, and directly contacting the feedstream with a first water spray to cool a reactor effluent stream to effective high temperature shift conditions and provide a high temperature shift reactor feed mixture. The high temperature shift reactor feed mixture is passed through a first dispersion zone, to uniformly disperse the first water spray in the high temperature shift reactor feed mixture and thus provide a dispersed high temperature shift reactor feedstream. The dispersed high temperature shift reactor feedstream is passed to a high temperature shift reaction zone, containing a high temperature shift catalyst, to provide a high temperature shift effluent stream. The high temperature's shift effluent stream is passed to a second water spray zone. The temperature shift effluent stream is directly contacted with a second water spray stream to cool the high temperature shift effluent to effective low temperature shift conditions and to provide a low temperature shift feed mixture. The low temperature shift feed mixture is passed through a second dispersion zone to uniformly disperse the second water spray in the low temperature shift feed mixture and provide a dispersed low temperature shift mixture. The dispersed low temperature shift mixture is passed to a low temperature shift reaction zone, containing a low temperature shift catalyst. The low temperature shift mixture is reacted to produce a low temperature shift effluent stream at a low temperature shift effluent temperature at saturation conditions and having a carbon monoxide of less than 3000 ppm-mol.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure is a schematic block flow diagram of the above process.