Ethanol is a globally available renewable source for hydrogen production for fuel cell applications. Prior research in this area focused on steam reforming of ethanol at relatively high temperatures (T > 500 degrees C), where carbon deposition and heat integration create operational problems. Combinatorial catalysis, an effective methodology for the accelerated discovery and optimization of functional materials, has been applied for the discovery of low-temperature catalysts for the production of hydrogen from ethanol. Libraries of catalytic materials were prepared by impregnating porous pellets of gamma-Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, CeO2, and Y-ZrO2 with individual aqueous salt solutions of 42 elements from the periodic table at 4 different loadings in the range 0.5-5 wt %. Ethanol steam reforming activities and H-2 selectivities of these 840 distinct materials were then evaluated using a computerized array channel microreactor system and mass spectrometry. Catalysts were screened under identical operating conditions of 300 degrees C, 1 atm, and a GHSV of 60 000 h(-1) using a feed gas composition of 2% C2H5OH and 12% H2O in a helium carrier gas. This systematic investigation, completed over a period of several months, both provided confirmatory results and produced new leads of superior catalytic materials. Pt/TiO2 and Pt/CeO2 were the most significant new leads, both of which gave the highest ethanol conversions (+90%) and hydrogen selectivities (similar to 30%) at 300 degrees C among all the single component catalytic materials explored.