A novel tungsten carbide promoted Pt/C (Pt-WC/C) was prepared by an intermittent microwave heating (IMH) method and used for the cathode electrocatalyst in an electrolyser for hydrogen production by methanol electrolysis. The electrolyser showed better performance for hydrogen production using the Pt-WC/C cathode electrocatalyst than using a commercial Pt/C cathode electrocatalyst. The single cell electrolyser gave reasonable current at voltages lower than 0.4 V. The novelty of this technique is the inherent simplicity and substantially lowered cost. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.