•Hydrothermal conversion of cellulose leads to H/C and O/C ratios close to real lignite.•Leaching of rhenish lignite with acids changes the oxidation temperatures.•Synthetic lignite was obtained by hydrothermal conversion of cellulose at 48h at 200°.•Synthetic lignite has a similar oxidation profile as acid-leached rhenish lignite.•ATR-IR and NMR spectroscopy are highly useful tools to analyze synthetic and real lignites.
Highly stable Ni catalysts with varying Ni contents up to 50 mol% originating from hydrotalcite-like precursors were applied in the dry reforming of methane at 800 and 900 °C.