Consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulose for ethanol production is realized by expressing cellulase enzymes on ethanologenic strain. In this study, an ethanologenic Escherichia coli ZY81 was constructed by integrating pyruvate decarboxylase gene pdc and alcohol dehydrogenase gene adhB from Zymomonas mobilis into the genome of E. coli JM109 to obtain the capability of ethanol production. Then, the beta-glucosidase gene bglB from Bacillus polymyxa was cloned and secretively expressed in E. coli ZY81. The recombinant strain E. coli ZY81/bglB showed an obvious activity of beta-glucosidase in extracellular location with more than half in periplasmic space. EDTA was found to promote the release of the periplasmic proteins by approximately tenfold. E. coli ZY81/bglB utilized cellobiose as sole carbon source for ethanol production with 33.99 % of theoretical yield.