hydrogen production from catalytic steam reforming of model compound acetic acid of bio-oil was investigated under atmospheric pressure in a bench-scale fixed-bed reactor and a series of ni catalysts supported on ceria-zirconia were prepared via co-precipitation with varying contents of ni and ce loading. simultaneously, effects of reaction temperature, and molar ratio of steam to carbon fed, liquid hourly space velocity (lhsv) were also explored. the results indicated that the 12ni/7.5ce-zr-o catalyst was superior to other catalysts with different ni and ce loading. at t = 650 degrees c, s/c = 3, lhsv = 2.8 h(-1), the reaction over ni catalyst supported on ceria-zirconia turns out that the highest activity and the maximum hydrogen selectivity of 83.4% and the minimum methane selectivity of 0.39% are attained. besides, ni catalyst supported on ceria-zirconia shows good stability during 25 h continuous reaction without any deactivation. copyright (c) 2012, hydrogen energy publications, llc. published by elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.