The intrinsic kinetic parameters of steam-methane reforming reactions over commercial nickel-based catalyst were determined. The reaction rate equations were derived from the reaction mechanism-based Langmuir-Hinshelwood chemisorption theory. As the experimental variables for the kinetic study, the reaction temperature ranged from 630 to 750 °C and the steam-to-carbon ratio also varied from 2.7 to 3.5. Based on the experimental data, the efficient optimization algorithm was used to determine the intrinsic kinetic parameters due to the high-dimensional objective function. It is confirmed that the parameter estimation results showed good agreement with the experimental values. Thus, this proposed mathematical reaction model can be used as the basic information to design a catalytic reactor and to optimize operating conditions.