TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - MECHANICAL ENGINEERING - Preferred Device: The palladium membrane tube is formed by, mounting a palladium membrane on a porous support. The length of the at least one tube is 3 - 120 (preferably 3 - 60) cm. The reactor is fed with steam and a fuel for the hydrogen production. The hydrogen permeates through the palladium membrane to yield over 99% purity of hydrogen. The shell and tube reactor module additionally comprises a catalytic combustion section having a noble metal catalyst dispersed on a supporting material for heating the reactor; and a reservoir containing fuels without H2O provided for starting up heating.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The palladium membrane is made of one selected from palladium, palladium-silver alloy and palladium-copper alloy. The porous support and the catalytic combustion section are made of stainless steel. The steam reforming catalyst is one of CuOZnOAl2O3, PdOCuOZnOAl2O3 and K2O,NiO/gamma-Al2O3. The supporting material is one selected from gamma-alumina, titania, zirconia, silica, DASH220 and N220. The palladium-silver alloy has a palladium to silver ratio of 1 - 1.5; and palladium to copper ratio of 7/3 - 11/9.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - The fuel is selected from ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, hexane, gasoline and/or methane.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - METALLURGY - The noble metal is platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh) and/or ruthenium (Ru). EXAMPLE - A shell and tube reactor module including palladium membrane tube in the reactor in which each membrane tube had 135 cm2 of membrane surface of in a stainless steel catalytic membrane reactor, was used for hydrogen production. Aqueous methanol was fed into the reactor giving WHSV of 2 and then steam reforming reaction was carried out at 340degreesC under a pressure of 5 - 8 bars from time to time. Permeation of hydrogen was obtained through the membrane to atmospheric pressure at 1000 ml/minutes; and the purity and recovery of the hydrogen was found to be 99.97% and 59% respectively.