A new binary oxide support was suggested as being useful in many commercial reactions. Our study was focused on the reduction effect of metal oxide layer on alumina during reaction. Hence temperature programmed reduction of both bulk metal oxide and metal oxide layer on alumina was studied first and the effect of palladium and nickel on the reduction of the oxide support was also investigated. Vanadium oxide was mainly studied and niobium oxide, tantalum oxide, titanium oxide and zirconium oxide were also compared. Some metal oxides were reduced in a hydrogen stream at elevated temperature. In these cases both the bulk metal oxide and metal oxide layer were reduced. A tiny amount of palladium or nickel affected the reduction by decreasing the reduction temperature. The decrease of the reduction temperature was explained by means of increased adsorption of hydrogen on the transition metal and ability of the metal to spillover of the hydrogen to the oxides.