LAUSR

Abstract Nickel sulfide is regarded as one of the most promising substitutes for the best-performing disposable molybdenum catalyst in the hydrogenolysis of lignite and heavy residue, but its practical application is hindered severely by insufficient catalytic activity and a prohibitively large dosage. Herein, we report that the issues of activity and cost of nickel sulfide can be addressed simultaneously by employing a combination of iron incorporation and a dispersing strategy via oil-soluble ligands. Motivated by first-principles calculations where iron incorporation in nickel sulfide would lead to a better activity towards the rate-limiting step of hydrogenolysis compared with nickel sulfide alone, we successfully prepared a well-dispersed Fe-Ni-S catalyst by coordinating active metal salts with carboxylate ligands and a subsequent essential sulfurization. The synthesized Fe-Ni-S catalyst outperformed not only the monometallic nickel catalyst but also the commercial molybdenum catalyst in the hydrogenolysis of lignite and heavy residue, and exhibited a high conversion efficiency, hydrogen consumption, hydrogen/carbon product atomic ratio, and dispersibility of solid residues, with an economic nickel dosage of as low as ~250 μg·g−1. Structural changes of raw coal and solid residues further confirmed the role of the Fe-Ni-S catalyst in facilitating the hydrogenolysis of lignite and heavy residue.