Combination of partial oxidation of methane (POM) with carbon dioxide reforming of methane (CRM) has been studied over Ru-based catalysts at 550 °C. POM, CRM and combined reaction were performed over 8wt%Ru/γ-Al2O3 and the results show that both POM and CRM contribute to the combined reaction, between which POM plays a more important role. Moreover, the addition of Ce to Ru-based catalyst results in an improvement in the activity and CO selectivity under the adopted reaction conditions. The Ce-doped catalyst was characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, XRD, TPR, XPS and in situ DRIFTS. The mechanism has been studied by in situ DRIFTS together with the temperature distribution of catalyst bed. The mechanism of the combined reaction is more complicated and it is the combination of POM and CRM mechanisms in nature. The present paper provides a new catalytic system to activate CH4 and CO2 at a rather low temperature.