Biomass-derived oxygenates such as biobutanol are potential candidates for renewable hydrogen (H-2) production. In this work, the model compound butanol was chosen as feed for H-2 production. Steam reforming of butanol was investigated at mild temperatures (623-773 K) over two noble metal catalysts Pt/Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3 renowned for their reforming activity. Trials were performed in a fixed-bed reactor using 1-4 wt% butanol solutions as feedstock. At T = 773 K and W/F-AO = 166.8 g h/mol (here, W and F-AO denote mass of catalystand molar flow rate of butanol in the feed), butanol conversion was almost complete over both catalysts. However, turnover frequency observed over Pt/Al2O3 (TOFH2 = 45.5 min(-1)) was higher than that achieved using Pd/Al2O3 (TOFH2 = 21.3 min(-1)). The apparent energy of activation for the disappearance of butanol over Pt/Al2O3 and Pd/Al2O3 was found to be 22.9 and 30.2 kJ/mol respectively. Thus, this work has provided key insights into H-2 production from butanol using noble metals at mild reaction conditions. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.