The kinetics study of steam reforming of ethanol was done using Co/Al2O3 catalysts to investigate the effect of reaction temperature, contact-time and steam to ethanol molar ratio on hydrogen production, Co/Al2O3 catalysts, prepared by wet impregnation method, were characterized for their surface area, pore volume, pore size and X-ray diffraction pattern. All the experiments were carried out in a fixed-bed tubular reactor. Surface reaction mechanism has been proposed based on the literature and product distribution obtained in the present study. The mechanistic kinetic model using Lanamuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) approach was developed considering surface reaction mechanisms of steam reforming of ethanol, water gas shift and ethanol decomposition reactions. The kinetic parameters of the multi-response non-linear mechanistic kinetic model were estimated using a non-linear least-square regression by fitting the expression to the experimental data. A reasonably good fit of the data indicates that the formation of acetaldehyde from ethoxy is the rate-determining step (RDS) for reforming reaction. The kinetic model is able to describe the steam reforming of ethanol process adequately for a wide range of experimental data. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.