Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)The improvement of yields and productivity for second-generation ethanol (2G) production as well as a better understanding of industrial yeasts and processes are required. Nevertheless, a process to produce 2G ethanol efficiently from lignocellulosic C5-sugars has not yet been proposed. Scheffersomyces stipitis presents good fermentation performance, promising to be a potential biocatalyst for converting C5-sugars to ethanol. In order to evaluate yeast performance, experiments were carried out in a retentostatic extractive vacuum system (REV) with total cell retention, controlled substrate feeding (at different xylose concentrations 100-200 g L-1) and simultaneous ethanol production and extraction. During REV at 100 g L-1, it was possible to achieve an efficient ethanol production. The optimum dilution rate was 0.025 h(-1). To avoid stress effects to the yeast metabolism, the ethanol was continuously extracted. Low ethanol concentrations were kept inside the fermenter (25-35 g L-1), resulting in higher yields and productivity when compared with batch, fed-batch and continuous cultures. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.121171180Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)