A study of H-2-rich syngas derived from coke oven gas for hydrogen production on Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst has been performed by water-gas shift reaction (WGSR). The theoretical thermodynamic equilibrium on the reaction temperature, steam/carbon (S/C) ratio and the high amount of H-2 and CH4 in the syngas have been considered in this work. From theoretical calculations and experiment results, it can be seen that the catalyst Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 can effectively and selectively transform H2O and CO to H-2 and CO2 under an atmosphere of 2.5 vol.% CH4 and 75.0 vol.% H-2. The high catalytic activity is closely correlated with the strong structural interaction of aurichalcite and hydrotalcite phases. Moreover, the thermal stability of the Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst was also studied by calcining at different temperatures. No obvious decrease in CO conversion was detected, suggesting that the catalyst had high heat-resisting ability due to the enhancement of the synergistic interaction in structural precursors. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.