Abstract: Five kinds of catalysts with different structures and phases were used for catalytic hydrothermal conversion of model compound and actual residue to investigate the differences of catalytic performance of different catalysts. Various characterization techniques were used to characterize the phase and structure of the catalyst in order to obtain the internal structural characteristics causing the difference of catalytic performance. The results show that different metals forms and organic ligands of homogeneous organic catalysts can affect the hydrogenation performance of phenanthrene. The phenanthrene hydrogenation activity of catalysts decreases as the following order, organo-Mo > organo-Ni > organo-Fe. Using solid powder iron catalyst with low dispersion and large size, the residue condensation rate is high, resulting in the formation of dense coke with the characteristics of graphite carbon. The organo-molybdenum catalyst made in the laboratory disperses as monolayer or bilayer nano-sized molybdenum sulfide in the reaction system, which shows higher residue cracking rate and lower condensation coking rate.

Key words: catalyst, residue hydrothermal conversion, catalyst characterization, phenanthrene hydrogenation