The aim of this study was to prepare HCF (High caloric fuel) from WH (water hyacinth) by deoxyliquefaction and investigate the composition of HCF. The experiment was performed in a closed reactor at different final temperatures (573 K, 623 K, 673 K and 723 K) with the heating rate of 60 K/min. At 623 K, the maximum yield (12.6 wt.%) of HCF with heating value of 43.8 MJ/kg was obtained. Alkanes, benzene derivatives and phenol derivatives were the dominant components in HCF. The main component in gaseous product was CO(2) (93.2 mol%), which meant that the oxygen in WH was released mainly in the form of CO(2). In addition, the elemental analysis of solid char suggested that the residue content of hydrogen was too low to produce more HCF. So, deoxy-liquefaction mentioned in this article was an effective way to remove oxygen and utilize C and H in WH to the greatest extent. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.