The acidity of catalytically active component, e.g., ultra stable Y zeolite (USY), plays an important role in determining their cracking activity and selectivity. To develop advanced sulfur reduction catalytic cracking catalysts, different type of elements were used to modify USY and the resulting catalysts were evaluated in a confined fluidized bed reactor and a micro-activity testing unit. The relation between the acidity of the zeolite and the conversion of sulfur compounds as well as the distributions of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) products were discussed. The results showed that the rare earth (RE) metal can stabilize the catalyst and increase the conversion, but cannot increase the selectivity to thiophene compounds; V can reduce the sulfur content by 36.3 m%, but decreases the overall conversion compared with the base catalyst. An optimum catalyst was obtained by the combined RE and V modification, over which the sulfur content in FCC gasoline can be decreased and the selectivity for the target products can be improved, with the sulfur content reduced by 30 m% and the selectivity to coke even decreased by 0.20 m% at a comparable conversion level of the base catalyst. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.