NOVELTY - Hydrogen is produced by reacting steam with a vaporizable hydrocarbon at 200-700 degreesC and at 1-200 bar in a reaction zone containing a reforming catalyst (9) to produce a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon dioxide with a lesser amount of carbon monoxide; and providing heat to the reaction zone by employing flameless distributed combustion (FDC) to drive the reaction.    USE - Used for production of hydrogen used in zero emission hybrid power system. It is also used in generating electricity (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - Produces pure hydrogen with minimal production of CO and virtually no CO in the hydrogen stream. It also provides CO2 capture for sequestration, employs a steam reforming membrane reactor and is empowered by flameless distributed combustion that provides great improvements in heat exchange efficiency.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Production of hydrogen involves:    (i) reacting steam with a vaporizable hydrocarbon at 200-700 degrees C and at 1-200 bar in a reaction zone containing a reforming catalyst to produce a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) with a lesser amount of carbon monoxide (CO);    (ii) providing heat to the reaction zone by employing FDC to drive the reaction; and    (iii) conducting the reaction in the vicinity of a hydrogen-permeable and hydrogen-selective membrane (8), where hydrogen formed in the reaction zone permeates through the selective membrane and is separated from CO2 and CO produced.    INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following:    (1) an apparatus for the production of hydrogen comprising:    (a) a membrane reforming steam (MRS) reactor comprising two concentric sections including a larger outside section and a smaller inside section and an annulus containing reforming catalyst between the sections;    (b) an annulus section having an inlet for steam and vaporizable hydrocarbon, a flow path for hydrogen and by-product gases resulting from reforming reactions taking place in the annulus section, and an outlet for the by-product gases;    (c) an outside section being in heat transfer contact with the annulus section and having an inlet for preheated air or other oxidant and tubes (10, 14) for fuel gas, where the tubes have openings through which oxidant resulting in FDC so uniform controlled heat is transferred to the annulus section; and    (d) inside section having a hydrogen-selective, hydrogen-permeable membrane positioned either on the inside or outside of the inside section and an outlet for hydrogen which permeates through the membrane from the annulus section into the inside section and passes through the outlet; and    (2) a fuel system comprising a fuel cell in communication with the apparatus.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure is a schematic diagram of FDC-MRS reactor.    Membrane (8)    Catalyst (9)    Tubes (10, 14)