Recent progress is surveyed both in elucidating the mechanism of electrochemical promotion at the molecular level and in utilizing it in monolithic electropromoted catalytic reactors. On the mechanistic side, recent O-18(2) TPD and O-18(2) + CO TP reaction studies have confirmed. together with STM, the validity of the sacrificial promoter model for both electrochemical promotion and metal-support interactions of P1 and Rh with anionic (YSZ) and mixed anionic-electronic supports. On the practical side, two recent advances are discussed, i.e., the electropromotion of thin (40 nm) sputtered catalyst films, with metal dispersion of the order of 20%, and the development of the monolithic electropromoted reactor (MEPR) which is a hybrid between a monolithic catalytic reactor and a flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell and allows for compact design and easy scale-up and scale-down of electropromoted catalytic units. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.