The effect of Ni/Co ratio on the catalytic performance of Ni-Co/ceramic foam catalyst for hydrogen production by steam reforming of real coal tar was studied. The Ni-Co/ceramic foam catalyst was synthesized by deposition-precipitation (DP) method and characterized with different methods. The experiments were conducted in a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that the reducibility of the metallic oxides in bimetallic Ni-Co/ceramic foam catalysts was influenced obviously by the Ni/Co ratio. Both gas and hydrogen yield increased first and then decreased with the decline of Ni/Co ratio, and the highest hydrogen yield of 31.46 mmol g(-1) was obtained when the Ni/Co ratio was 5/5. The lowest coke deposition of 0.34 wt% was generated at the same Ni/Co ratio. The lifetime test showed the catalyst maintained catalytic activity after 14 cycles (28 h), indicating the coal tar steam reforming on Ni-Co/ceramic foam catalyst is a promising method for hydrogen production. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.