Ethanol is an important bulk chemical with diverse applications. Biomass‐derived ethanol is traditionally produced by fermentation. Direct cellulose conversion to ethanol by chemocatalysis is particularly promising but remains a great challenge. Herein, a one‐pot hydrogenolysis of cellulose into ethanol was developed by using graphene‐layers‐encapsulated nickel (Ni@C) catalysts with the aid of H3PO4 in water. The cellulose was hydrolyzed into glucose, which was activated by forming cyclic di‐ester bonds between the OH groups of H3PO4 and glucose, promoting ethanol formation under the synergistic hydrogenation of Ni@C. A 69.1 % yield of ethanol (carbon mole basis) was obtained, which is comparable to the theoretical value achieved by glucose fermentation. An ethanol concentration of up to 8.9 wt % was obtained at an increased cellulose concentration. This work demonstrates a chemocatalytic approach for the high‐yield production of ethanol from renewable cellulosic biomass at high concentration.

Aldol condensation reactions between furfural and acetone can be used to produce liquid fuel intermediates.

In this work, glucose was transformed into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and 5-ethoxymethylfurfural (EMF) in the presence of AlCl3·6H2O and a Brønsted solid acid catalyst (PTSA–POM).