Hydrogen production by the water gas shift reaction (WGS) is equilibrium limited. In the current study, we demonstrate that the overall efficiency of the WGS can be improved by co-feeding methanol and removing CO2 in situ. The thermodynamics of the water gas shift and methanol reforming/WGS (methanol-to-shift, MtoS) reactions for H-2 production alone and with simultaneous CO2 adsorption (sorption-enhanced, SEWGS and SEMtoS) were studied using a non-stoichiometric approach based on the minimisation of the Gibbs free energy. A typical composition of the effluent from a steam methane reformer was used for the shift section. The effects of temperature (450-750 K), pressure (5-30 barg), steam and methanol addition, fraction of CO2 adsorption (0-95%) and energy efficiency of the shift systems have been investigated. Adding methanol to the feed facilitates autothermal operation of the shift unit, with and without CO2 removal, and enhances significantly the amount of H-2 produced. For a set methanol and CO input, the MtoS and SEMtoS systems show a maximum productivity of H-2 between 523 and 593 K due to the increasing limitation of the exothermic shift reaction while the endothermic methanol steam reforming is no longer limited above 593 K. The heat of adsorption of CO2 was found to make only a small difference to the H-2 production or the autothermal conditions. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.