Co-precipitation method was selected for the preparation of Ni/Al_2O_3, Ni/ZrO_2 and Ni/CeO_2 catalysts, and their performances in methanation were investigated in this study. The structure and surface properties of these catalysts were characterized by BET, XRD, H_2-TPD, TEM and H_2-TPR. The results showed that the catalytic activity at low temperature followed the order: Ni/Al_2O_3>Ni/ZrO_2>Ni/CeO_2. Ni/Al_2O_3 catalyst presented the best catalytic performance with the highest CH_4 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. Co-precipitation method was selected for the preparation of Ni / Al_2O_3, Ni / ZrO_2 and Ni / CeO_2 catalysts, and their performances in methanation were investigated in this study. The structure and surface properties of these metals were characterized by BET, XRD, H_2 -TPD, TEM and H_2-TPR. The results showed that catalytic activity at low temperature followed the order: Ni / Al_2O_3> Ni / ZrO_2> Ni / CeO_2. Ni / Al_2O_3 catalyst presented the best catalytic performance with the highest CH_4 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.