In the industrial production, water exists inevitably into feed stocks in the form of impurity, and it can produce a negative effect in the hydrogenation reaction due to the preferential adsorption of water on active sites. Here, the surfactants (polyvinylpyrrolidone, poloxamer, polyethylene glycol and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide) are used to improve physicochemical property of Cu/SiO2 catalysts, so that Cu/SiO2 catalysts had a good hydrogenation performance at condition containing water. The appropriate addition amount of surfactants in the catalyst preparation process effectively hindered the agglomeration of copper species by steric configuration and repulsion effect between Cu2+ and positive ionizable, which brought about high copper dispersion and small particle size. Meanwhile, the decomposition of surfactants produced many pores during calcination, resulting in the increased of specific surface area and average pore diameter. These advantages provided more chances for reactants to touch active sites due to spatial restriction and the increase of the number of active sites, so that the negative effects of water can be counteracted. The conversion of Cu/SiO2 catalysts, that the surfactants was added in the catalyst preparation process, increased 60% to 200% at reaction condition containing water.