The purpose of this study was to elucidate the kinetics of a porous nickel electrode for hydrogen production in a molten carbonate electrolysis cell. Stationary polarization data for the Ni electrode were recorded under varying gas compositions and temperatures. The slopes of these iR-corrected polarization curves were analyzed at low overpotential, under the assumption that the porous electrode was under kinetic control with mass-transfer limitations thus neglected. The exchange current densities were calculated numerically by using a simplified porous electrode model. Within the temperature range of 600-650 degrees C, the reaction order of hydrogen is not constant; the value was found to be 0.49-0.44 at lower H-2 concentration, while increasing to 0.79-0.94 when containing 25-50% H-2. The dependence on CO2 partial pressure increased from 0.62 to 0.86 with temperature. The reaction order of water showed two cases as did hydrogen. For lower H2O content (10-30%), the value was in the range of 0.47-0.67 at 600-650 degrees C, while increasing to 0.83-1.07 with 30-50% H2O. The experimentally obtained partial pressure dependencies were high, and therefore not in agreement with any of the mechanisms suggested for hydrogen production in molten carbonate salts in this study. (C) 2015 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.