Hydrogen production by steam reforming of methanol was studied over several Cu/SAB-15-based nanocatalysts in a parallel-type microchannel reactor. The catalysts were prepared through impregnation method and XRD, BET, FT-IR, FE-SEM, TEM, H-2-TPR and TGA techniques were used to characterize surface and structural properties of the synthesized catalysts. The effects of reaction temperature, WHSV and S/C molar ratio on the methanol conversion and selectivities of the gaseous products were studied. Then, effects of the metallic promoters were investigated to improve performance of the catalysts. It was revealed that ZnO and CeO2 promoters have positive effects on decreasing CO selectivity and ZrO2 promotes methanol conversion. Furthermore, ZrO2 and CeO2 were declared to improve stability of the catalyst. Among the evaluated catalysts, Cu/ZnO/CeO2/ZrO2/SBA-15 can provide optimal methanol conversion with low CO concentration in the gaseous products. For this catalyst, the methanol conversion and hydrogen selectivity reached 95.2% and 94.6%, respectively. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.