The skimmed hot dross generated in secondary production of aluminum contains high amount of metallic aluminum and also the potential heat. An innovative process for hydrogen generation using skimmed hot dross from aluminum remelting industry is proposed in this work. The reaction behavior between skimmed dross and water steam in terms of hydrogen evolution variation at high temperature is studied. The results show that the inherent salts in the dross could accelerate the hydrogen generation at temperature region of 600850 degrees C by dissolving the amorphous and gamma-Al2O3 product layer in water steam atmosphere. The maximum aluminum conversion degree was found to be more than 60%, and the hydrogen evolution rate was over 60 cm(3) g-(1)min-(1) when skimmed dross with 30 wt% Al was used in non-isothermal test. The mechanism related to the texture responding of alumina layer with different amount of salts additives and temperatures is discussed. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.