A one-dimensional dense membrane reactor (DMR) model has been developed to simulate the partial oxidation of methane to syngas. A combustion-reforming mechanism was adopted and the oxidation of reforming products, i.e. H(2) and CO, was considered. The performance of the DMR and a conventional fixed-bed reactor was compared and discussed. The results show that the incorporation of the product oxidation steps has a significant effect on the simulation results of a DMR and provides a reasonable explanation of the experimental data. The model is therefore more reasonable than those ignoring the product oxidation reactions. (c) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.