Coal-to-ethylene glycol technology routes conforms to the development of national energy strategy and can effectively reduce the dependence on imports of ethylene glycol.The hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate(DMO)is an important part of the technical route.Copper-based catalyst is most widely studied for DMO hydrogenation,which still faces a great challenge in improving the high-temperature sintering resistance.This paper summarizes and analyzes the design and structure-activity relationship of different kinds of DMO hydrogenation catalyst materials.The modification strategy of Cu-based catalyst for hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate at low temperature and the latest research progress of new multifunctional catalysts such as ruthenium/silver-based catalysts in ester hydrogenation are also introduced herein.Finally,the future research direction of low temperature and high efficiency hydrogenation catalyst for dimethyl oxalate is proposed.