With the aim of producing hydrogen at low cost and with a high conversion efficiency, steam methane reforming (SMR) was carried out under moderate operating conditions in a Pd-based composite membrane reactor packed with a commercial Ru/Al2O3 catalyst. A Pd-based composite membrane with a thickness of 4-5 mu m was prepared on a tubular stainless steel support (diameter of 12.7 mm, length of 450 mm) using electroless plating (ELP). The Pd-based composite membrane had a hydrogen permeance of 2.4 x 10(-3) mol m(-1) s(-1) Pa-0.5 and an H-2/N-2 selectivity of 618 at a temperature of 823 K and a pressure difference of 10.1 kPa. The SMR test was conducted at 823 K with a steam-to-carbon ratio of 3.0 and gas hourly space velocity of 1000 h(-1); increasing the pressure difference resulted in enhanced methane conversion, which reached 82% at a pressure difference of 912 kPa. To propose a guideline for membrane design, a process simulation was conducted for conversion enhancement as a function of pressure difference using Aspen HYSYS (R). A stability test for SMR was conducted for similar to 120 h; the methane conversion, hydrogen production rate, and gas composition were monitored. During the SMR test, the carbon monoxide concentration in the total reformed stream was <1%, indicating that a series of water gas shift reactors was not needed in our membrane reactor system. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.