This work deals with the performance of waterless catalytic partial oxidation (CPOX)-based catalytic reformer system fed by different liquid fuels including ethanol, isooctane, hexadecane, synthetic JP8, kerosene and diesel for solid oxide fuel cell applications. The effect of different fuel components on product composition was studied and the operational parameters were optimized to provide a stable reforming performance. The system provided negligible pressure drop combined with the simpler system design due to the lack of water requirement making the POX reformer an attractive choice. (C) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.