Catalysts consisting of NiO diluted in high surface area TiO2 can be as efficient in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane as the most selective NiO-promoted catalysts reported previously in the literature. By selecting the titania matrix and the NiO loading, yields to ethylene over 40% have been obtained. In the present article, three different titanium oxides (TiO2) have been employed as supports or diluters of nickel oxide and have been tested in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane to ethylene. All TiO2 used present anatase as the main crystalline phase and different surface areas of 11,55 and 85 m(2) g(-1). It has been observed that by selecting an appropriate nickel loading and the titanium oxide extremely high selectivity towards ethylene can be obtained. Thus, nickel oxide supported on TiO2 with high surface areas (i.e. 55 and 85 m(2) g(-1)) have resulted to give the best catalytic performance although the optimal nickel loading is different for each case. The optimal catalyst has been obtained for NiO-loadings up to 5-10 theoretical monolayers regardless of the TiO2 employed. Free TiO2 is inactive whereas unsupported NiO is active and unselective (forming mainly carbon dioxide) and, therefore, unmodified NiO particles have to be avoided in order to obtain the optimal catalytic performance. The use of low surface area titania (11 m(2) g(-1)) have led to the lowest selectivity to olefin due to the presence of an excess of free NiO particles. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.