Sugarcane bagasse (SB) is a promising alternative feedstock for second-generation fuel ethanol production. Chemical SB pulp has high cellulose content (73.89%) and low lignin content (0.49%). SB pulp and pretreated SB were subjected to digestion by cellulase produced by Penicillium oxalicum EU2106. The results showed that SB pulp released the highest amount of reducing sugars, when compared with other pretreated SB. The glucan conversion reached 93.36% after 96 h hydrolysis of SB pulp at an enzyme loading of 20 FPU/g solid and a solid loading of 60 g/L. Thermotolerant Saccharomyces cerevisiae ZM1-5 was employed in simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of SB pulp to ethanol, which was performed in multiple parallel fermentation tanks (500 mL working volume). A considerable amount of ethanol (18.79 g/L at 0.42 g ethanol/g cellulose) was produced when the solid loading was 60 g/L. All data indicated that SB pulp could be employed as an alternative material for bioethanol production. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.