The work provides a review of water-gas shift and processes of reforming of oxygenated hydrocarbons, basically alcohols, employed for hydrogen production and focusing mainly on advances produced during last five years on catalysts of the base metals copper, nickel and cobalt. Particular attention is paid to analysis of the interplay between microstructure and interfacial chemistry of the supported metal catalysts and its interaction with the reaction mixture in each case. In this sense, the report basically covers how the interactions between the components of the catalysts in the various employed formulations and the presence of promoters affect to structural/morphological/chemical properties of the active metal in each case, their redox properties as well as processes involved in their deactivation under reaction conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.