Cryptococcus curvatus has great potential in fermenting unconditioned hydrolysates of sweet sorghum bagasse. With hydrolysates obtained by enzymatic hydrolysis of the solid pretreated by microwave with lime, the maximal yeast cell dry weight and lipid content were 10.83 g/l and 73.26%, respectively. For hydrolysates obtained in the same way but without lime, these two parameters were 15.50 g/l and 63.98%, respectively. During yeast fermentation, glucose and xylose were consumed simultaneously while cellobiose was released from the residual bagasse. The presence of lime, on one hand, made cellulose more accessible to enzymes as evidenced by higher total reducing sugar release compared to that without during enzymatic hydrolysis step; on the other hand, it caused the degradation of sugars to non-sugar chemicals during pretreatment step. As a result, higher lipid yield of 0.11 g/g bagasse or 0.65 ton/hectare of land was achieved from the pathway of microwave pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis while 0.09 g/g bagasse or 0.51 ton/hectare of land was attained from the process of lime-assisted microwave pretreatment followed by the same enzymatic saccharification. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.