Abstract: Five dispersed molybdenum, nickel and cobalt oil soluble homogeneous catalysts were synthesized. The hydrogenation of coal tar pitch was under the conditions of 370 °C, 10 MPa hydrogen pressure, and 4 h reaction time in an autoclave reactor. The effects of molybdenum naphthenate addition, molybdenum nickel and molybdenum cobalt bimetallic ratios on hydrogenation were investigated. The catalytic hydrogenation effect was evaluated by the liquid yield. A variety of analytical methods, such as elemental analysis, ICP-MS, TEM, XPS, and four component separation, were used to explore the optimal catalytic system for the slurry bed hydrogenation of coal tar pitch. The results show that the optimal catalytic system is molybdenum naphthenate and nickel naphthenate ratio of 1∶1 at catalyst amount of 2×10³. Under optimal conditions, the liquid yield is 85.3%, the residue yield is 10.6%, and the gas yield is 4.1%.