Abstract: Conventional ethanol gelling agents methyl cellulose (MC) and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) have to be added with a certain proportion of water as a solvent to form the gel. In order to prepare high performance ethanol gel green propellants, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) was proposed as an anhydrous gelling agent. The rheological properties of different ethanol gels were tested by conducting shear tests, yield stress tests, strain scans and frequency scans. The results show that HPMC gels require the addition of more than 6% mass fraction of water as solvent and their critical gelling agent mass fraction is 10%, while HPC gels do not require the addition of water and their critical gelling agent mass fraction is 8%. At a shear rate of 100 s⁻¹, the shear viscosities are 2.6 Pa·s, 6.9 Pa·s and 11.1 Pa·s for HPC mass fraction of 6%, 8% and 10%, respectively. At a mass fraction of 8% gelling agent, the yield stress of HPMC and HPC gel is around 2.5 Pa and 24.8 Pa, respectively, and HPC gel has a greater yield stress. HPC has a larger linear viscoelastic region than HPMC with a larger critical strain change. Then it has a stronger internal structure, which is beneficial for storage and transportation. Compared with traditional gelling agents, HPC is a good anhydrous ethanol gelling agent as it can be used to obtain the same viscosity of ethanol gels without water or under smaller quantities.