The invention relates to an industrial catalyst for preparing ethanol with acetic ester by hydrogenation. The catalyst comprises, in weight percent, 20-50% of CuO, 10-30% of ZnO, 1-10% of M oxide and 10-69% of SiO2, wherein the M is selected from IIA group or VIII group metals, the SiO2 is amorphous silicon dioxide, the specific surface area of the catalyst is 100-300m<2>/g, and the specific surface area of active copper is 10-20m<2>/g. The preparation process of the catalyst includes the steps: firstly, mixing precursors of metal Cu, Zn and M to prepare water solution I, mixing a Si precursor and a precipitator to prepare water solution II and then mixing and precipitating the solution; and secondly, performing washing, filtering, drying, preforming, roasting, crushing and reducing to obtain the catalyst. The obtained catalyst has high catalytic activity for hydrogenation of the acetic ester and has a certain water resistance and acid resistance, the ethanol has high selectivity, and the service life of the catalyst is prolonged.