Co-precipitation method was selected for the preparation of Ni/Al2O3, Ni/ZrO2 and Ni/CeO2 catalysts, and their performances in methanation were investigated in this study. The structure and surface properties of these catalystswere characterized by BET, XRD, H-2-TPD, TEMand H-2-TPR. The results showed that the catalytic activity at low temperature followed the order: Ni/Al2O3 > Ni/ZrO2 >Ni/CeO2. Ni/Al2O3 catalyst presented the best catalytic performance with the highest CH4 selectivity of 94.5%. The characterization results indicated that the dispersion of the active component Ni was the main factor affecting the catalytic activity and the one with higher dispersion gave better performance. (C) 2016 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.