We investigated the bioconversion of whey and whey permeate into ethanol by Kluyveromyces marxianus immobilized in Ca-alginate, in both batch and continuous cultivations. Different strains of K. marxianus and cultivation media were tested in batch mode and the effects of dilution rate (D) and substrate concentration were investigated in continuous bioreactors. In shaker cultivations, the highest ethanol yield (0.51 g g(-1)) and ethanol productivities (0.77-1.15 g L-1 h(-1)) were obtained by strains CBS 6556, CCT 4086, and CCT 2653 in raw (not supplemented) whey permeate. These strains were immobilized in Ca-alginate beads and cultivated in batch fluidized-bed bioreactors, where the highest ethanol productivity (2.53 g L-1 h(-1)) was observed for strain CCT 4086. The effects of D (0.1-03 h(-1)) and whey permeate concentration (C-WP, 60-180 g L-1) were also investigated in continuous fluidized-bed bioreactors using K. marxianus CCT 4086, and the highest ethanol productivity (6.01 g L-1 h(-1)) was achieved at D of 0.3 h(-1) and C-WP of 150 g L-1, whereas the highest ethanol yield (0.51 g g(-1)) and concentration (42.8 g L-1) were observed for D 0.1 h(-1) and C-WP of 90 g L-1. Two continuous fluidized-bed bioreactors operated in sequence were tested, showing increased ethanol productivities and concentrations to 6.97 g L-1 h(-1) and 70.4 g L-1, respectively. Continuous immobilized-cell bioreactor showed promising results to improve the performance of ethanol production from whey fermentation processes. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.