In this report, ethanol (Et0H) was selectively synthesized from dimethyl ether (DME) and syngas (CO + H2) with a dual-catalyst bed in a single reactor. H-Mordenite (H-MOR) zeolite was used to convert DME into methyl acetate (MA) through carbonylation reaction in the first stage reaction, and then Et0H was produced by MA hydrogenation over the Cu/ZnO catalyst at the second stage. In addition, the metals such as Pt, Pd or Ru were used to impregnate H-MOR catalyst by impregnation method to improve its catalytic activity. The combination of Pt/H-MOR catalyst with Pt loading amount of 0.4 wt.% and Cu/ZnO catalyst showed excellent catalytic performance compared with the conventional combination of pure H-MOR catalyst and Cu/ZnO catalyst. Crown Copyright 2013 Published by Elsevier By. All rights reserved.