A novel WSC (wheat straw cellulose) based hydrogel was prepared by solution polymerization and then applied as a template for in situ preparation of Ni and Cu nanoparticles for further utilization as catalyst in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of NaBH4. SEM with EDS, XRD, TGA, XPS and BET surface area analyses were employed to characterize the structure of WSC based hydrogel-nanometal (Ni or Cu) composites. The effects of several parameters such as the mesh size of catalyst, the amount of catalyst, the initial concentration of NaBH4 and the reaction temperature were studied. Based on the analysis of kinetics of the hydrolysis reaction of NaBH4 at different temperatures, the activation energy was 32.66 (34.83) kJ mol(-1) for WSC based hydrogel-Ni (Cu) composites. The WSC based hydrogel-Ni (Cu) composites can be used up to 5 times with 100% conversion and 77.5% (70%) activity. When the catalyst was stored for 30 days, the catalyst was remained 70% activity for hydrogel-Ni composites and 65% activity for hydrogel-Cu composites, respectively. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.