Fuel processing is one of the major processes for generation of hydrogen for fuel cells. Stoichiometric analysis is used to develop a general framework for comparison of fuel reforming data, in the full range of steam reforming (SR) to combustion. This framework is then applied to determine the reforming reaction space for methanol, ethanol, methane, propane, isooctane, dodecane, and hexadecane. A simple approach is proposed for determination of the thermal efficiency for autothermal reforming (ATR) of a generalized fuel based on fuel atomic analysis and oxygen consumption. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.