In this work,nickel metal supported on different supports (SiO2,Al2O3,ZSM-5) were prepared by spraying nickel nitrate on the supports and calcined at 873 K.Then,they were characterized by XRD,XRF,N2 adsorption-desorption,NH3-TPD,MCH-TPD,H2-TPR,and pyridine-FTIR,and tested as catalysts for the dehydrogenation aromatization and isomerization of methylcyclohexane (MCH) under the conditions of S-Zorb catalytic adsorption desulfurization (T =673 K,P =1.5 MPa,WHSV =5 h-1).The H2-TPR results showed that the interaction of NiO with support decreased in the order of NiO/ZSM-5-Fe ＜ NiO/ZSM-5 ＜ NiO/Al2O3 ＜ NiO/SiO2.The decrease of the interaction appeared to facilitate the reduction of Ni and therefore to promote the dehydrogenation aromatization of MCH.It was found that a direct correlation existed between the gasoline components yields,cracking activity and the total number of different supports acid sites measured by NH3-TPD tests.Higher total acidity of ZSM-5 resulted in gasoline loss because of higher cracking activity of MCH.The number of total acid sites of NiO/ZSM-5-Fe decreased and the medium strong Br(o)nsted acid sites necessary for MCH isomerization increased after the modification of ZSM-5 by iron metal.So,NiO/ZSM-5-Fe exhibited enhanced MCH conversion,aromatic and isomerization yields when compared to NiO/ZSM-5 and other Ni-based catalysts.This study shows that NiO/ZSM-5-Fe catalyst may be possible to be integrated into the S-Zorb system achieving the recovery of the octane number of gasoline.