The main barriers to cost-effective lactic acid production from lignocellulose are the high cost of enzymes and the ineffective utilization of the xylose within the hydrolysate. In the present study, the thermophilic Bacillus coagulans strain CC17 was used for the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of bagasse sulfite pulp (BSP) to produce L-lactic acid. Unexpectedly, SSF by CC17 required approximately 33.33% less fungal cellulase than did separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF). More interestingly, CC17 can co-ferment cellobiose and xylose without any exogenous beta-glucosidase in SSF. Moreover, adding xylanase could increase the concentration of lactic acid produced via SSF. Up to 110 g/L of L-lactic acid was obtained using fed-batch SSF, resulting in a lactic acid yield of 0.72 g/g cellulose. These results suggest that SSF using CC17 has a remarkable advantage over SHF and that a potentially low-cost and highly-efficient fermentation process can be established using this protocol. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.