ZnAl2O4, MgAl2O4, and CuAl2O4 based additives were prepared, characterized, and evaluated in micro activity test unit using heavy combined hydrocarbon feedstock at the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit conditions to study the gasoline sulfur reduction. These additives were prepared at identical conditions and characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, NH3-TPD & N-2 sorption analysis to establish the spinel formation, acidity measurement and pore-size distribution respectively. The performance of these additives was studied along with base FCC catalyst at 10 weight percent concentration. Hydrogen transfer reaction, aromatization and alkylation functionalities were established to rank the prepared additives for their activity, selectivity, and gasoline sulfur removal efficiency. The sulfur shifting in other liquid products such as heavy naphtha, light cycle oil and clarified oil were also studied. While studying the gasoline sulfur removal efficiency of these additives, the research octane number (RON) of gasoline property has taken into consideration as the FCC gasoline contains lot of olefins (20-40 wt%), which involves in the sulfur removal reactions. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.