The reaction of producing hydrogen for fuel cell which used normal octane as gasoline or diesel oil reactant through catalytic partial oxidizing and steam reforming method has been researched in the fixed-bed reactor. A series of catalysts that mainly used nickel supported on Al2O3 have been studied. It showed that the activity of the catalyst was increased with the content of nickel by using only nickel supported on Al2O3. However, its activity was not obviously increased when the content of nickel was over 5 wt%. The conversion ratio of normal octane and hydrogen selectivity were higher at higher reaction temperature. The single noble catalyst of palladium had better stability compared with that of platinum catalyst although their activity and selectivity were similar during the experimental reaction temperature. The prepared bimetallic catalyst consisted mainly of nickel and little noble metal of palladium supported on Al2O3. It showed that this catalyst had higher activity and selectivity, especially at lower or higher reaction temperatures compared with single nickel or palladium catalyst, and better stability. ((C) 2001 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.