TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preparation: No general preparation given. Preferred Catalyst: The catalyst further comprises calcium and potassium. Preferred Component: The alumina is gamma alumina. Preferred Definitions:    R=zirconium, gallium, cerium or lanthanum;    M1=rhodium;    M2=nickel;and    M3=cobalt.    EXAMPLE - Aqueous slurry of gamma alumina was formed by adding deionized water (20 ml) to UOP VGL-15 (RTM: gamma alumina) (15 g). Aqueous cerium nitrate solution (10 ml) formed by mixing water (10 ml) and cerium nitrate (9.46 g) was added at the rate of 1 drop per second with a pipette to aqueous slurry of UOP VGL-15 (RTM: gamma alumina) (35 g) to form a treated slurry. The treated slurry was stirred at 65 degrees C to evaporate excess water and the resulting powder was dried under vacuum at 120 degrees C for 12 hours. The resulting dried support material was placed in a ceramic crucible and calcined in a muffle furnace under an air flow of 70 cc/minute to produce cerium oxide aluminum oxide (CeO2Al2O3) support material. During calcination the support material was heated at 1 degrees C/minute to 600 degrees C and held at 600 degrees C for 6 hours. The furnace then was turned off and allowed to cool naturally to room temperature. Then, the calcined CeO2Al2O3 support material (4.8 g) was mixed with deionized water (10 ml) while continuously stirring at 70 degrees C. Then, an aqueous rhodium, nickel nitrate solution (5 ml) formed by mixing water (5 ml), rhodium nitrate (1 g) and nickel nitrate (0.4955 g) was added drop-wise to the CeO2Al2O3 slurry (14.8 g) while stirring. The resulting treated CeO2Al2O3 slurry was then continuously stirred at 65 degrees C until all water in liquid form was evaporated to produce a rhodium, nickel catalyst precursor powder. The catalyst precursor powder was then dried under vacuum at 120 degrees C for 12 hours. The dried catalyst precursor powder then was placed in a ceramic crucible and calcined in a muffle furnace with flowing air at 70 cc/minute while heating at 1 degrees C/minute to 600 degrees C and holding at 600 degrees C for 6 hours. The furnace then was shut off and allowed to cool to room temperature. The calcined catalyst powder was compressed in a pellet presser at 600 degrees C to produce a disk. The disk then was crushed and sieved to 18-35 mesh. The sieved catalyst was placed between two quartz wool layers inside a reactor tube under flowing hydrogen at a flow rate of 20 cc/minute. While in the flowing hydrogen, the sieved catalyst was heated at 2 degrees C/minute to 500 degrees C and held at 500 degrees C for 5 hours. The furnace then was shut off, and nitrogen was passed through the furnace at 120 ml/minute and allowed to cool to room temperature to yield 2%rhodium-2%nickel-96% CeO2Al2O3 bimetallic, noble-metal based catalyst product where all amounts are based on the total weight of the catalyst.