Cane bagasse with low total extractives content was pretreated by steam explosion.
Autohydrolysis gave glucose yields better than acid-catalyzed steam explosion.
Extractives removal had little influence on cellulosic ethanol production.
Substrate hydrolysates were readily fermentable by Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Pre-hydrolysis followed by SSF gave the highest overall ethanol volumetric yields.