The effect of sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocellulose (SPORL) on composition, structure, enzymatic hydrolysis and cellulase adsorption profiles of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) was investigated. SPORL gave a higher SCB hydrolysis yield (85.33%) compared to dilute acid pretreatment (DA) (64.39%). The SEM pictures showed that SPORL SCB structure became more disordered and looser, suggesting SPORL SCB was more accessible to cellulase. The zeta potential of SPORL SCB suspension (-21.89 mV) was significantly different from that of DA SCB (-12.87 mV), which demonstrated the lignin in SPORL SCB was more hydrophilic. With regard to cellulase adsorption profiles, SPORL SCB had a lower non-productive adsorption (14.87 mg/g lignin) and a higher productive adsorption (37.67 mg/g carbohydrate) compared with DA SCB (17.05 mg/g lignin; 25.79 mg/g carbohydrate). These results indicated that SPORL SCB had better accessibility to cellulase and the higher productive cellulase adsorption of SPORL SCB had improved hydrolysis. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.