A series of Ni/SBA-16 and NiMo/SBA-16 catalysts were prepared by the impregnation methods and their performance on synthetic natural gas (SNG) production were systematically investigated in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. Catalysts were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), H-2 pulse chemisorption, temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Catalysts with the addition of MoO3 exhibited larger metal surface area and better heat-resistant performance, because the strong interaction between Ni and SBA-16 was formed. Mo-Ni/SBA-16(1 wt%) achieves the best activity with 100% CO conversion and 97% CH4 selectivity at 350 degrees C, 0.1 MPa, and 15,000 mL/g/h. The activity of Mo-Ni/SBA-16(1 wt%) remain stable after calcination in reactant gases at 700 degrees C and during the 100 h reaction period. It was noting that for catalysts with large metal particle size (more than 20 nm) CO methanation turned to be a structure-insensitive reaction, which the activity is related to the amount of active site rather than the particle size. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.