A series of Al O and CeO modified MgO sorbents was prepared and studied for CO sorption at moderate temperatures. The CO sorption capacity of MgO was enhanced with the addition of either Al O or CeO . Over Al O -MgO sorbents, the best capacity of 24.6 mg-CO /g-sorbent was attained at 100 °C, which was 61% higher than that of MgO (15.3 mg-CO /g-sorbent). The highest capacity of 35.3 mg-CO /g-sorbent was obtained over the CeO -MgO sorbents at the optimal temperature of 200 °C. Combining with the characterization results, we conclude that the promotion effect on CO sorption with the addition of Al O and CeO can be attributed to the increased surface area with reduced MgO crystallite size. Moreover, the addition of CeO increased the basicity of MgO phase, resulting in more increase in the CO capacity than Al O promoter. Both the Al O -MgO and CeO -MgO sorbents exhibited better cyclic stability than MgO over the course of fifteen CO sorption-desorption cycles. Compared to Al O , CeO is more effective for promoting the CO capacity of MgO. To enhance the CO capacity of MgO sorbent, increasing the basicity is more effective than the increase in the surface area.