Mg-Al oxide supported Ni catalysts with enhanced stability for efficient synthetic natural gas from syngas

•Tailoring support is an effective way to develop high-performance catalysts for SNG.•Ni/Mg2Al(O) catalyst shows high catalytic activity and excellent stability for SNG.•The high catalytic activity was ascribed to the large surface area of Ni/Mg2Al(O).•The excellent stability was due to strong metal-support interaction of Ni/Mg2Al(O).