Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier, but does not occur naturally. Here we reported a novel process to get instant hydrogen from a mixture of methanol and dilute hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen can be obtained instantly once the fuel mixture is in contact with the platinum catalyst without any external heating or any energy input. The catalyst can be started and stopped more than 100 times before a new load of catalyst is required. Pure hydrogen is produced by combining the reforming catalyst with a water gas shift catalyst bed, which is driven by heat from the reforming process. Interestingly we discovered that only platinum catalysts can synergistically activate methanol and hydrogen peroxide to give hydrogen spontaneously. The preparation conditions and impurities have significant effects on the reforming process. This work overcomes the various hurdles of on-board reforming for hydrogen production and provides a way to catalyse the utilization of fuel cells. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.