Ceramic-carbonate dual phase dense membranes are a new group of inorganic membranes with perm selective to CO2 at high temperatures. This paper reports a new catalyst-free tubular membrane reactor to shift CO from the hot gasifier syngas to H-2 and CO2 with simultaneous separation of CO2. The membrane reactor is based on a samarium-doped ceria (SDC)-carbonate dual phase membrane which removes CO2 facilitating conversion of CO to H-2 at high temperatures. The results show that catalytic-free membrane reactor can convert CO to H-2 and CO2 with removal of CO2 at temperatures above 800 degrees C. At 900 degrees C, the membrane reactor gives CO2 flux of 2.7 x 10(-3) mol m(-2) s(-1), CO conversion and CO2 recovery of 26.1%and 18.7%, respectively, much higher than the conventional fixed bed reactor under identical conditions. Temperature, steam to CO ratio, and syngas feed flow rate are key parameters to control the reaction performance. Increase of the feed pressure (reaction side) is an effective strategy to improve the reactor performance and CO2 recovery. The membrane reactor shows high thermal and chemical stability under syngas WGS reaction environment. This work demonstrates potential of using catalyst-free SDC-carbonate dual phase membrane reactor for water gas shift reaction to convert CO to H-2 with CO2 capture. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.