Ethanol and higher alcohols (C2+ alcohols) used as liquefaction fuels and/or feedstocks for chemicals could be of great significance if they could be efficiently synthesized from the transformation of biomass-based syngas. Here, we report a uniformly dispersed CoGa catalyst with CoGa particles trapped in the oxide support, which is not only highly active and selective but also distinctively stable in the synthesis of ethanol and higher alcohols from syngas. A 43.5% CO conversion with an alcohol selectivity of 59% has been achieved. In the alcohol products, the fraction of ethanol and higher alcohols reaches 93%. More significantly, the trapped CoGa shows no visible changes of particle dispersion and homogeneous CoGa distribution in the reaction, which gives rise to stable catalytic performance. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.