Birch wood was pretreated with N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO or NMO) followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation to ethanol or digestion to biogas. The pretreatments were carried out with NMMO (w(NMMO) = 85%) at 130 degrees C for 3 h, and the effects of drying after the pretreatment were investigated. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the untreated wood resulted in 8%-10% of theoretical glucose yield after 4 days hydrolysis, while the NMMO pretreatment improved this yield to 91%. Consequently, ethanol production yield from NMMO-pretreated materials resulted in around 9-fold improvement compared to the untreated wood. On the other hand, drying of the pretreated wood had a negative impact and decreased the yield of enzymatic hydrolysis by 4%-10%. Digestion of the untreated wood with thermophilic bacteria resulted in maximum methane yield of 158 cm(3) g(-1) of VS in 30 days, while the NMMO pretreatment improved the methane yield up to 232 cm(3) g(-1) of VS (80% of the theoretical biogas yield) in just 9 days. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.