This study investigated the effect of hydrogen permeance and selectivity, catalyst amount, $H_2O/CO$ ratio in a feed stream, and Ar sweep gas on the performance of a water gas shift reaction in a membrane reactor. It was observed that a minimum hydrogen selectivity of 100 was needed in a membrane reactor to obtain a hydrogen yield higher than the one at equilibrium and the hydrogen yield enhancement gradually decreased as the hydrogen permeance increased. The CO conversion in a membrane reactor initially increased with the catalyst amount and reached a plateau later for a membrane reactor with a low hydrogen permeance while the high CO conversion independent of a catalyst amount was observed for a membrane reactor with a high hydrogen permeance. For the $H_2O/CO$ ratio in a feed stream higher than 1.5, a hydrogen permeance had little effect on the CO conversion in a membrane reactor and it was found that a minimum Ar molar flow rate of $6.7{ imes}10^{-6}mol;s^{-1}$ was needed to achieve the CO conversion higher than the one at equilibrium in a membrane reactor.