Cellulosic Ethanol, or Second-generation Ethanol, is a biofuel produced from cellulose (the stringy fibre of a plant) rather than from the plants seed, fruit or tuber.

Growth of cellulose by plants is a mechanism that captures and stores solar energy by photosynthesis, in nontoxic ways. Additionally, transport may be unneeded anyway, because grasses or trees can grow almost anywhere. This is why commercially practical Cellulosic Ethanol is widely viewed as a next level of development for the biofuel industry which could reduce demand for oil and gas drilling. It could also avoid one of the problems with today’s conventional (grain-based) biofuels, which is that they set up competition for grain with food purposes, potentially driving up the price of food. The biological and eco-friendly method to produce ethanol from cellulose is cellulolytic processes which consist of hydrolysis on pretreated lignocellulosic materials, using a group of enzymes to break complex cellulose into simple sugar, followed by fermentation and distillation.