Mesoporous and worm-like In2O3 catalysts have been prepared using KIT-6 and MCM-41 silicas as templates, which show low crystallinities and high surface areas. Compared with commercial In2O3 catalyst with low surface area, these two nano-structured In2O3 catalysts exhibit higher catalytic activity for steam reforming of ethyl alcohol at low temperature to produce hydrogen containing no detectable CO impurity, presenting an advantage in comparison with the previous reported catalysts. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.