Olive stones are an agro-industrial by-product in Mediterranean countries that can be regarded as a potential source of bio-fuels and bioactive compounds. In this work, olive stones were pretreated with liquid hot water (LHW), dilute sulphuric acid (DSA) and organosolv delignification at temperatures in the range 190 degrees C-230 degrees C. The resulting solids from pretreatments were subjected to simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) with the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae IR2-9a for fuel-ethanol production. The composition of prehydrolysates from LHW and DSA pretreatments were strongly dependent of reactor temperature. The highest yields of D-xylose (0.21 kg kg(-1)) and a-glucose (0.11 kg kg(-1)) were achieved in DSA assays at 200 degrees C and 230 degrees C, respectively, while LHW processes provided the maximum oligosaccharide recovery (0.17 kg kg(-1)) at 210 degrees C. The addition of sulphuric acid in organosolv pretreatments was particularly effective to increase the cellulose content of the pretreated solids till percentages close to 83%. Finally, the maximum ethanol concentration achieved by SSF was 47.1 kg m(-3), and 13 kg ethanol were obtained from 100 kg of raw material. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.