The photocatalytic activity of well-known gold photocatalysts is investigated in the water splitting reaction by using either the ethanol or the hydrazine molecule as a scavenging agent in order to generate a renewable hydrogen harvest process. Gold photocatalysts are prepared by the deposition-precipitation method on sol-gel TiO2 and using P25 as reference. These photocatalysts are surface and structurally characterized by N-2 physisorption, UV-vis and XPS spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction, H-2-TPR, and STEM-HAADF microscopy. The Au/TiO2 photocatalysts exhibit the highest H-2 generation in the presence of either a high concentration of ethanol (3.5 M) or a low hydrazine concentration (20 mM). Stability tests for the Au/TiO2 photocatalysts are carried out in several cycles using the same water-hydrazine solution, showing a hydrogen production enhancement followed by a steady state reaction. The stability of the production process is corroborated by both photocatalysts and the scavenging solution, which suggest either a slow concentration decrement or a dosage process of the hydrazine molecule. Hydrazine acts as a scavenging dosing agent which maintains the stability of the more photoactive catalysts for 50 h. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.