A theoretical and experimental work concerning a catalytic ceramic membrane reactor is described in this paper. A tubular catalytic ceramic membrane reactor prototype has been developed to separate hydrogen at low concentration from an inert gas stream via oxidation. A mathematical model has also been carried out either to analyze the experimental results or to develop the reactor optimization. The experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical previsions. The optimization study shows that it is possible to reach very high conversion values. Such preliminary work points out the role of either the materials technology or the membrane catalytic coating.