Hydrogen production from ethanol solution by pulsed high voltage spark discharge was investigated in this work. It is the first time that pulsed high voltage spark discharge in ethanol solution has been used for hydrogen production in the existing documents. A needle-plate reactor for on-board hydrogen production was also designed, which is small-scale and portable for automobiles. By optimizing the reaction conditions, the flow rate of hydrogen can reach 422 mL/min at peak voltage = 30 kV, discharge frequency = 30 Hz, electrode distance = 15 mm, initial ethanol concentration = 50%. It was also found that energy consumption of this method is about 1.69 kW h/m(3), which is better than most existing methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.