Abstract: The flowsheet simulation model of the cellulosic ethanol miniplant with the capacity of 1 kg/d ethanol production from corn stover and the physical property database were developed on the Aspen plus platform. The mass balance and energy balance of the miniplant process were calculated and the results show that, producing 1 kg cellulosic ethanol required 2.595 7 kg fresh water and 3.605 4 kg stream, 8.061 6 kg waste water under the maximum productivity of the cellulosic ethanol miniplant， which was lower than the consumption of the corn based ethanol process; required energy input 36.515 2 MJ and generated 53.574 9 MJ, which means that the energy generation was greater than the energy consumption; the integrated energy consumption was 1.826 9 kg standard coal, while the energy generation during this process was 1.828 0 kg standard coal, which suggested that there was an energy balance between the output and the input.