Heavy Maya crude has been hydrotreated with NiMo/alumina-titania catalysts in which titania was incorporated by two different methods. Titania added to boehmite followed by calcination in order to promote formation of Ti-O-Al bonds, and Ti added to alumina in order to promote the formation of TiO2 structures on the surface. The reaction results indicate that hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodemetallization (HDM) and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) activities are improved by the incorporation of Ti to the catalyst. In all cases, catalysts prepared by the method leading to the formation of surface TiO2 structures show superior performance in the three functionalities (HDS, HDM and HDN). Raman analysis of the supports gives clear evidence of the differences in Ti oxide structures on the surface. The characterization of the catalysts indicates that Ti-modified catalysts have increased surface acidity (evaluated by pyridine adsorption) and greater number of coordinatively unsaturated sites (titrated by NO adsorption). Ti-containing catalysts seem to be also more stable with time-on-stream. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.