The forced oxidation of magnesium sulfite (MgSO3) aims to not only reclaim the by-product in the magnesia desulfurization, but also lower the risk of secondary pollution. The non-porous titanium dioxide nanoparticle was used as a support to prepare the cobalt catalyst (Co-TiO2) in order to expedite the oxidation rate. This fabricated Co-TiO2 was characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to figure out its catalytic mechanism. The results revealed that the cobalt nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on the surface of the TiO2 in forms of Co3O4 and Co2O3. The kinetics of the MgSO3 oxidation catalyzed by the prepared Co-TiO2 was investigated in a bubbling tank reactor, indicating that the oxidation rate was dependent on the catalyst concentration, oxygen partial pressure, pH value, and the reaction temperature. Compared with the reported porous catalyst (Co-CNTs), the activation energy with the Co-TiO2 (17.29 kJmol(-1)) decreased by 50.9%, resulting in a good catalytic performance in sulfite oxidation. The findings will help advance the industrial application of the novel magnesia desulfurization process. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.