S. anglica was pretreated by acid/alkali-assisted steam/microwave heating (S/MH).
Acid-assisted SH generated smaller and more regular fragments and debris (5–30 μm).
Dilute acid increased the reducing sugar yield by 0.598 g/g-VS than alkali in SH.
Acid-assisted SH with enzymolysis exhibited a saccharification efficiency of 98.96%.
Energy conversion efficiency of S. anglica was 74.9% in H2 + CH4 production.