The hydrogenation of methyl acetate (MA) is one of the important key processes for synthesis of ethanol from syngas. This work reports a highly efficient Cu-ZnO/SBA-15 catalyst prepared by facile solid-state grinding method. Both copper and zinc species were encapsulated in SBA-15 in high dispersion with the presence of organic template. The mixed homogeneity and interaction between copper and zinc species was enhanced as well with the help of organic template, resulting in the formation of Cu+ species in the reduced catalysts. Moreover, TOFCu(0) linearly increased with the Cu+/Cu-0 ratio, indicating that a high proportion of Cu+/Cu-0 induced by ZnO should be a key prerequisite to achieve favorable hydrogenation performance. It seems that the Cu+ species originated from Cu-ZnOx species are more active than that from Cu-O-Si species in the activation of MA. These results may provide an inspiration in rational design of Cu-ZnO-based catalysts for esters hydrogenation. (c) 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 2839-2849, 2017