“…While CO 2 methanation catalysts based on noble metals such as Rh or Ru do not normally present sintering problems, Ni, Cu or Co based samples, among others, are more susceptible to metal particles agglomeration and aggregation, leading to significant effects on the dispersion. In this context, several works reported the beneficial effect of adding transition metals, noble metals, lanthanides or even alkali earth metals in partially suppressing Ni particles sintering ,,,,,,,,. Among all, Ce has been the most commonly used,,,,,,,, mainly due to its effects, not only on the dispersion of the metallic species (from ∼19 to ∼3 nm Ni 0 particles in 5 %Ni/USY and 5 %Ni‐3 %Ce/USY catalysts, respectively), but also due to the favoured activation of CO 2 over Ce species, as it will be further discussed later.…”