Hydrogen (H-2) is expected to become an important fuel for the future to be used as an energy carrier in automobiles and electric power plants. a promising route for H-2 production involves catalytic reforming of a suitable primary fuel such as methanol or ethanol. Since ethanol is a renewable raw material and can be cheaply produced by the fermentation of biomass, the ethanol reforming for H-2 production is beneficial to the environment. In the present study, the steam reforming of ethanol in the presence of added O-2, which in the present study is referred to as oxidative steam reforming of ethanol (OSRE), was preformed for the first time over a series of CuNiZnAl mixed oxide catalysts derived from layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors. The effects of Cu/Ni ratio, temperature, O-2/ethanol ratio, contact time, CO co-feed and substitution of Cu/Ni by Co were investigated systematically in order to understand the influence of these parameters on the catalytic performance. An ethanol conversion close to 100% was noticed at 300degreesC over all the catalysts. The Cu-rich catalysts favor the dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. The addition of Ni was found to favor the C-C bond rupture, producing CO, CO2 and CH4. Depending upon the reaction condition, a H-2 yield between 2.5 and 3.5 moles per mole of ethanol converted was obtained. A CoNi-based catalyst exhibited better catalytic performance with lower selectivity of undesirable byproducts, namely CH3CHO, CH4 and CO.