The study focuses on hydrogen production from steam reforming of glycerol over nickel based catalyst promoted by zirconia and supported over ceria. Catalyst was prepared by the wet-impregnation method and characterized by BET surface area analysis, X-ray diffraction technique and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The performance of the catalyst was evaluated in terms of hydrogen yield, selectivity and glycerol conversion at 700 degrees C in a tubular fixed bed reactor. The effect of glycerol concentration in feed, space time (W/F(AO),), temperature and time on stream (TOS) was analyzed for the catalyst Ni-ZrO(2)/CeO(2) which showed the complete conversion of glycerol and high H(2) yield that corresponds to 3.95 mol of H(2) out of 7 mol. Thermodynamic analysis was also carried out using Aspen HYSYS for system having glycerol concentration 10 wt% and 20 wt% and experimental results were compared with thermodynamics. Kinetic study was carried out for the steam reforming of glycerol over Ni-ZrO(2)/CeO(2) catalyst using the power law model. The values of activation energy and order of reaction were found to be 43.4 kJ/mol and 0.3 respectively. (c) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.