The investigation of hydro-conversion behavior of the heavy intermediate products derived from coal direct liquefaction is advantageous to optimize the technological conditions of direct coal liquefaction and improve the oil yield. In this paper, the hydro-conversion of preasphaltenes catalyzed by SO42-/ZrO2 solid acid was investigated based on the structural characterization of preasphaltenes and its hydro-conversion products, and the determination of products distribution and the kinetics of preasphaltenes hydro-conversion. The results indicated that the content of condensed aromatic rings increased, and the contents of hydrogen, oxygen and aliphatic side chains of preasphaltenes decreased with the increase of coal liquefaction temperature. The preasphaltenes showed higher hydro-conversion reactivity while SO42-/ZrO2 solid acid was used as catalyst. Higher temperature and longer time were in favor of increasing the conversion and the oil + gas yield. The conversion of preasphaltenes hydro-conversion under 425 degrees C, for 40 min reached 81.3% with 51.2% oil + gas yield. SO42-/ZrO2 solid acid was in favor of the catalytic cracking rather than the catalytic hydrogenation in the hydro-conversion of preasphaltenes. The activation energy of preasphaltenes conversion into asphaltenes was 72 kJ/mol. The regressive reactions were only observed at a higher temperature. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.