The production of lignocellulosic ethanol is one of the most promising alternatives to fossil fuels; however, this technology still faces many challenges related to the viability of the lignocellulosic alcohol in the market. In this paper the endocarp of buriti fruit was assessed for ethanol production. The fruit endocarp was characterized physically and chemically. Acid and alkaline pre-treatments were optimized by surface response methodology for removal of hemicellulose and lignin from the biomass. Hemicellulose content was reduced by 88% after acid pretreatment. Alkaline pre-treatment reduced the lignin content in the recovered biomass from 11.8% to 4.2% and increased the concentration of the cellulosic fraction to 88.5%. The pre-treated biomass was saccharified by the action of cellulolytic enzymes and, under optimized conditions, was able to produce 110 g of glucose per L of hydrolyzate. Alcoholic fermentation of the enzymatic hydrolyzate performed by Saccharomyces cerevisiae resulted in a fermented medium with 4.3% ethanol and a yield of product per substrate (YP/S) of 0.33.
