Abstract: The effect of moisture amount on the liquefaction behaviors of Xilinhaote coal under syngas was investigated.The results indicated that the conversion of coal was evidently improved with an appropriate amount of moisture under syngas.The highest conversion (84.59%) was achieved with the moisture of 7.5% (mass fraction).However,the conversion decreased significantly upon increasing the amount of moisture.Moreover,an appropriate amount of moisture was favorable for the water-gas shift reaction,which promoted the conversion of coal.The highest conversion of CO reached 26.00% when the moisture was 7.5%.With the increase of moisture,the conversion of CO reduced to 16.93%.FT-IR spectra indicated that the asphaltenes and preasphaltenes were abundant with hydroxy.The moisture in coal was considered to cause the cleavage of functional groups of side chains in coal.However,the polycondensation of asphaltenes took place in case of the increased moisture (>15.0%),thus reduced the yield of coal liquefaction.