Catalytic decomposition of methanol (MD) plays a vital role in hydrogen production, which is the desirable fuel for both proton exchange membrane and direct methanol fuel cell systems. Thus, the catalytic mechanisms, or pathways, of MD have lately been the focus of research interest. Recently, the feasible independent pathways (IP(i)s) have been reported on the basis of a set of highly plausible elementary reactions. Nevertheless, no feasible acyclic combined pathways (AP(i)s) comprising IP(i)s have been reported. Such AP(i)s cannot be ignored in identifying dominant pathways. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.