has been found especially useful is a natural sodium sesquicarbonate marketed by solvay chemicals houston tex as solvay t 200 u00ae a sesquicarbonate has a formula of na 2 co 3 nah co 3 2h 2 o it produces 1 5 mols sodium carbonate na 2 co 3 upon heating at sufficiently high temperature table 1 presents some properties of this product as reflected in the producer 39 s technical data sheet the carbonate raw material was found to have a typical ftir fourier transform infrared spectrum characterized with absorbance peaks at about 3464 3057 1697 1463 1190 1014 850 and 602 cm u2212 1 corresponding to the values published for this material the final product of the present invention had an ftir spectra exhibiting at least two peaks selected from absorbance peaks at 880 1103 1454 1410 1395 1570 and 1587 cm u2212 1 an alumina powder that has been found to be useful in the present invention is a transition alumina powder produced by the rapid calcination of al oh 3 known as gibbsite alumina a 300 sold by uop llc des plaines ill is a typical commercial product that is suitable as a component of the reactive composite of the present invention this alumina powder has a bet surface area of about 300 m 2 g and about 0 3 mass na 2 o it contains only a few percent free moisture and is capable of fast rehydration in the presence of water the ftir spectrum of a 300 has the broad.