Cellulose, as an energy substance with tremendous resources, is reproducible and is a breakthrough point for the research of renewable energy. It is urgent and necessary to realize the conversion of cellulose with high efficiency under the mild condition. Ru immobilized on CNTs (Ru/CNTs) catalyst was prepared and used to the reaction of cellulose to polyols. The influence factors, such as the Ru loading amount, reaction time, reaction temperature and hydrogen pressure were investigated. The role that Ru/CNTs played in the reaction and the procedure of cellulose to polyols were discussed. The experimental results show that cellulose can be converted into C2-C6 polyols with the yield up to 38% catalyzed by Ru/CNTs with 4 wt% Ru loading and at the temperature of 225 degrees C and the hydrogen pressure cf 6 MPa within the reaction time of 30 min. The conversion of cellulose to polyols catalyzed by Ru/CNTs is in fact a two-step reaction with cellulose first to reducing sugar and then to polyols. In the process of cellulose to polyols, CNTs promotes the cellulose to convert into reducing sugar by hydrolysis and Ru catalyzes the conversion of the reducing sugar to polyols by hydrogenation. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.