Temperature control of an autothermal methanol reforming reactor which uses the copper-zinc oxide catalyst was studied. Temperature at 1cm below the hot-spot point in the reactor was used for the controlled variable, and the air flow rate was used for the manipulated variable. A first order plus time delay model was identified and controller parameters were obtained by applying the IMC-PI tuning rule to the identified model. With this controller, we could control the reforming reactor temperature within ± 5 ℃ over 100 hours. Change of the hot-spot point due to the catalyst degradation was investigated and it could be used to design an adaptive controller.