A Co/ZnO catalyst was prepared by coprecipitation method, and was applied for ethanol steam reforming. The effect of reaction conditions on the ethanol steam reforming performance was studied in the temperature ranges from 400 degrees C to 600 degrees C and the space velocity ranges from 10,000 h(-1) to 120,000 h(-1) in a fixed bed reactor. The Co/ZnO showed high activity with an ethanol conversion of 97% and a H(2) concentration of 73% at a gas hourly space velocity of 40,000 h(-1) and a moderately low temperature of 450 degrees C. EXAFS analysis for fresh and spent samples confirms that Co phase maintains during reaction. The catalyst was then loaded into a multi-layered reformer of which the design concept allows for integrating endothermic steam reforming, exothermic combustion and evaporation in a reactor. The performance of the compact reformer demonstrated that the hydrogen production rate satisfy a PEMFC stack power level of 540 W suitable for portable power supplies. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved