With the development of exploitation technique, oil resources development and utilization have increased. However, the existing oil resources are complex in composition and high in viscosity. The use of conventional catalysts for upgrading has problems of low utilization efficiency, difficulty in recovery, etc. Biomass has emerged as a potential alternative to the dwindling fossil fuel reserves. Catalytic conversion of biomass has become one of the main routes for the transformation of biomass into a variety of commodity chemicals or liquid fuels. However, the common homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts used in biomass catalytic conversion also have problems such as difficulty in recycling and big consumption, which limits their applications. Magnetic nano-catalysts, as new catalysts, not only have high catalytic activity, but also can be separated under the external magnetic field, achieving their recovery and reuse, making industry production serialization, reducing the cost of chemical production, and improving the production. Here we review the preparation methods of ferrite magnetic nano-catalysts. We also present their recent advances in the fields of catalytic desulfurization, catalytic conversion of biomass to chemicals, production of biodiesel, coal liquefaction, and analyze the problems to be solved for the specific applications in the field of resources and energy. Finally, the prospects on the application of ferrite magnetic nanoparticles are outlined.