The effect of ceramic support on the performance of methanol reforming process catalysts was studied by synthesizing Cu/Zn1.11La1.26Al0.5O4.27 and comparing it with optimized, conventional gamma Al2O3 based catalyst in a monolithic reactor. The physicochemical properties of the synthetic catalysts were studied using BET, FESEM, FTIR, XRD, TGA, TPR, TEM and XPS analyses for better evaluation of their catalytic performance. The results showed that the sponge like ceramic support Cu/Zn1.11La1.26Al0.5O4.27 catalyst is very highly efficient and active, has a lower reduction temperature and possess better pore size and pore volume compared with gamma-Al2O3 based catalysts. Comparison of Cu/gamma Al2O3, Cu/La-gamma Al2O3, Cu/Zn/La-gamma Al2O3 and Cu-Zn/gamma-Al2O3 catalysts shows that the presence of Zn undesirably affects methanol conversion at higher temperatures while positively affecting the conversion at lower temperatures. Unlike Zn, La functions better at higher temperatures with respect to conversion and selectivity to H-2. Therefore, Cu-Zn/La-gamma-Al2O3 catalyst function better works uniformly at all temperatures. The conversion and selectivity to H-2 of the new Cu/Zn1.11La1.26Al0.5O4.27 catalyst (97% and 91% respectively) are greater than the alumina supported catalysts such as Cu-Zn/La-gamma-Al2O3 (90% and 73% respectively). The obtained results show that in this process, the designed Monolith/Zn1.11La1.26Al0.5O4.27 structure has a remarkable impact on methanol conversion and carbon monoxide selectivity. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.