In this experimental work, the ethanol steam reforming reaction is performed in a porous stainless steel supported palladium membrane reactor with the aim of investigating the influence of the membrane characteristics as well as of the reaction pressure. The membrane is prepared by electroless plating technique with the palladium layer around 25 mu m deposited onto a stainless steel tubular macroporous support. The experimental campaign is directed both towards permeation and reaction tests. Firstly, pure He and H(2) are supplied separately between 350 and 400 degrees C in the MR in permeator modality for calculating the ideal selectivity alpha H(2)/He. Thus, the MR is packed with 3 g of a commercial Co/Al(2)O(3) catalyst and reaction tests are performed at 400 degrees C, by varying the reaction pressure from 3.0 to 8.0 bar. Experimental results in terms of ethanol conversions as well as recovery and purity of hydrogen are given and compared with some results in the same research field from the open literature. As best result of this work, 100% ethanol conversion is reached at 400 degrees C and 8 bar, recovering a hydrogen-rich stream consisting of more than 50% over the total hydrogen produced from reaction, having a purity around 65%. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.