In this study, hydrogen and ethanol production by a facultative anaerobic bacterium Escherichia coli XL1-Blue immobilized in calcium-alginate beads have been investigated. Batch fermentations were carried out at mesophilic temperature (35 degrees C) and an initial cultivation pH of 6.5. Firstly, the influence of biomass concentration in terms of dry cell weight (expressed in g DCW/L, range 0.2-1.0) was investigated using fructose (5 g/L) as a carbon source. The peak hydrogen yield (HY) of 1.17 mol-H2/mol-fructose(utilized) was obtained at an initial cell concentration of 0.4 g DCW/L. The hydrogen production potential of other simple carbon sources (glucose and xylose) was evaluated at this optimized cell concentration and peak HY values were attained as 0.96 mol-H-2/mol-glucose(uttlized) and 0.69 mol-H-2/mol-xylose(utilized), respectively. In addition, utilization of the beverage wastewater (BWW) showed the peak cumulative hydrogen production and ethanol concentration of 120 mL and 5.65 g/L, attained at the substrate concentration of 20 g((glucose equivalent))/L. However, peak HY (1.65 mol-H-2/mol-(glucose eqivalent utilized)) was observed at low substrate concentration of 5 g((glucose equivalent)/L. The percentage of sugar utilization of BWW was ranged between 80 and 96. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.