This work has been undertaken with the aim of designing promising noble-metal-free catalysts for efficient hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of dibenzofuran (DBF) into fuel grade hydrocarbons. For this, various Ni/Al-SBA-15 catalysts with different Si/Al (50, 60, 70 and 80) mole ratios were synthesized and their catalytic performance was tested for HDO of DBF in a batch reactor. The catalysts were systematically characterized using XRD, N2-adsorption-desorption, Raman, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, XRF, and FESEM techniques. The activity results showed that the HDO of DBF proceeds via hydrogenation of benzene on the Ni sites followed by cleavage of C-O bonds on the acidic sites of the catalyst to yield unsaturated hydrocarbons. Further hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons on the Ni sites gives bicyclohexane as the major product. Remarkably, a 100% DBF conversion was found for all the catalysts except for Ni/SBA-15 and Ni/Al-SBA-15(80) (Si/Al mole ratio = 80) catalysts, which showed 97.97 and 99.31%, respectively. A significant observation noticed in this study is that the incorporation of Al into Ni/SBA-15 results in an outstanding improvement in the selectivity of the bicyclohexane product. Among the catalysts tested, the Ni/Al-SBA-15(50) (Si/Al mole ratio = 50) catalyst showed the highest efficiency, with superior selectivity of ∼87% for bicyclohexane and ∼96% degree of deoxygenation at 10 MPa, 260 °C and 5 h. The obtained structure-activity results reveal the synergetic effect of Ni and support in HDO of DBF reaction: the concentration of acidic sites has a significant effect on the selectivity of the desired products. © 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry.