extruder it was the consistency of very smooth dough the alkali carbonate clay binder diatomaceous earth and plastic binder system mixes were extruded into u215b inch diameter rods and the chopped into u215b inch long pellets a gas reaction chamber was constructed in order to expose small amounts of the absorbers of the present invention to a h 2 co 2 gas stream that contained phosphine or arsine a small amount of alkali carbonate or alkaline earth carbonate k 2 co 3 na 2 co 3 baco 3 mgco 3 caco 3 and mn co 3 2 was placed into a small alumina bucket and exposed to 50 cm 3 min of 90 h 2 10 co 2 50 ppm of either phosphine or arsine for 50 hours tests with ph 3 were performed at 500 u00b0 c and tests with ash 3 were performed at 600 u00b0 c obtained samples were further analyzed by micro xrd to identify the new compounds in particular a formation of na 4 as 2 o 7 and na 3 aso 4 from naco 3 exposed to arsenic was confirmed kco 3 exposed to phosphine was converted to k 2 hpo 4 k 4 p 2 o 7 and possibly k 5 p 3 o 10 the effective capture temperature range and the breakthrough temperature of each of the carbonates were determined by monitoring the activity of a nickel zirconia anode for electrochemical hydrogen oxidation nickel is an active electrocatalyst for hydrogen oxidation however it is easily poisoned by low ppm levels of phosphine.