Catalytic hydrogenolysis systems of C-O bonds in furan ring, tetrahydrofuran ring and tetrahydropyran ring in biomass-derived cyclic compounds are reviewed. Furfural or its hydrogenation products (furfuryl alcohol and tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol) have been frequently used as substrates for this type of reactions. Ring-opening of furfuryl alcohol over metal catalysts combined with basic components gives a mixture of 1,2-pentanediol, 1,5-pentanediol and other by-products. The selectivity much depends on catalysts and reaction conditions, and good 1,2-pentanediol selectivity can be obtained. For 1,5-pentanediol synthesis, more selective approaches have been reported such as Cu-zeolite catalysts for furfuryl alcohol hydrogenolysis in flow reactor and M-M’Ox-type (M: noble metal; M’: transition metal) supported catalysts or Ni-LnOx (Ln: rare earth element) catalysts for tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol hydrogenolysis. The metal catalysts and M-M’Ox-type catalysts can be applied to ring-opening hydrogenolysis of other furan- and tetrahydrofuran-based compounds, respectively. Among the products of ring-opening hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived compounds, 1,5-pentanediol seems to be the most important because of the potential use as a monomer. The recent progress and reported properties of polymers using 1,5-pentanediol as a monomer are also summarized.