TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: The hydrogen feed is provided by steam reforming, oxidation of methanol, oxidation of methane, oxidation of biomass, coal gasification, or gasification of organic wastes, plastics wastes, farm wastes, or wood chips.The exposing step is conducted at 80-150degrees C.Formate is formed in a base-catalyzed water-gas-shift reaction conducted in the presence of a base including hydroxides, alkoxides, carbonates, bicarbonates of lithium, sodium, potassium or cesium, and/or 1-4C amines added in an amount to promote formate formation.The exposing step is conducted at a pH greater than 8.The catalyst promotes a water-gas-shift reaction in a liquid phase including water, methanol, glyme, polyglycol, other 2-10C alcohols, 2-10C ethers, or their mixtures.The hydrogen feed has a carbon monoxide concentration of 50 ppm to less than 20 ppm. The process reduces carbon monoxide content of the hydrogen feed by producing the hydrogen geed from formate in a liquid phase in the presence of a formate decomposition catalyst at 80-150degrees C.The formate includes formates of sodium, potassium, lithium, or cesium. It is generated from carbon monoxide and hydroxide in a basic solution.The process produces a hydrogen rich gas from a gas stream including carbon monoxide, water, hydrogen, and methanol by oxidizing carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide in the presence of a liquid-phase homogeneous catalytic system which is a metal complex coupled to at least one N-donor ligand.Preferred Catalyst: The catalyst is a homogeneous transition metal complex.The transition metal is ruthenium, nickel, rhodium, platinum, cobalt, copper, palladium, iridium, or iron.The catalyst is a transition metal coupled to at least one N-donor ligand including 2,2'-dipyridyl, sodium salt of ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid, ethylenediamine, 1,10-phenanthroline, 4,4'-dipyridyl, 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, N,N-bis(2-hydroxybenzyl)ethylenediamine H4, of their mixtures.The formate decomposition catalyst is a homogeneous metal complex which is a transition metal complex having a metal from group VIIIA. The transition metal complex includes RuCl3.xH2O, Ru3(CO)12, NiCl2.6H2O, RhCl3.3H2O, CoCl2, K2PtCl4, FeCl2, Ru(CO)5, Ni(CO)4, Rh6(CO)16, CO2(CO)8, (Pt(CO)(Cl2))2, or their mixtures. EXAMPLE - An experiment was performed to illustrate the catalytic activity of ruthenium trichloride for potassium formate (KHCO2) decomposition. A deep red solution resulted on adding 3 mmol RuCl3.xH2O to 130 ml 85% triglyme/10% methanol/5% H2O solvent mixture. The red solution and 50 mmol of KHCO2 were loaded into an AE Zipperclave batch unit consisting of 0.5 L pressure vessel. The vessel was pressurized with 1.4 MPa nitrogen and heated to 120 degrees C. The pressure increased with time at a constant temperature of 120 degrees C. Heating was continued for 80 minutes until a constant temperature was attained indicating that gas evolution of mainly carbon dioxide and hydrogen from formate decomposition had ceased. On cooling the vessel, a net pressure increase of 0.22 MPa was noted. The final gas analysis at room temperature showed 10.8% hydrogen, 4.1% carbon dioxide, and less than 50 ppm carbon monoxide. This indicated that the decomposition reaction was catalytic with respect to ruthenium because turnover numbers as high as 12 mol hydrogen/mol ruthenium/minute were obtained.