The renewable hydrogen generation through ethanol steam reforming is one of the anticipated areas for sustainable hydrogen generation. To elucidate the role of Ni and Co with ZSM-5 support, catalysts were prepared by wet impregnation method and ethanol steam reforming (ESR) was performed. The catalysts were characterized by HR-XRD, ATR-FTIR, HR-SEM, TEM with SAED, EDAX, surface area analyzer and TPR. It had shown complete ethanol conversion at 773 K, but the selectivity in hydrogen generation was found higher for 10% Ni/ZSM-5 catalyst as compared to 10% Co/ZSM-5. The 10% Ni/ZSM-5 catalyst has about 72% hydrogen selectivity at temperature 873 K. It indicates that Ni is a more sustainable catalyst as compared to Co with ZSM-5 support for ESR. The C2H4 was found major undesirable products up to 823 K temperature. Nevertheless, the 10% Ni/ZSM-5 catalyst had shown its stability for high temperature (873 K) ESR performance. (C) 2018 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.