The robust supramolecular structure of biomass often requires severe pretreatments conditions to produce soluble sugars. Nonetheless, these processes generate some inhibitory compounds (i.e. furans compounds and aliphatic acids) deriving mainly from sugars degradation. To avoid the inhibition of the biological process and to obtain satisfactory sugars conversion level into biofuels, a detoxification step is required. This study investigates the use of two pyrochars derived from solid anaerobic digestates for the detoxification of lignocellulosic hydrolysates. At a pyrochar concentration of 40 g L-1, more than 94% of 5-HMF and 99% of furfural were removed in the synthetic medium after 24 h of contact time, whereas sugars concentration remained unchanged. Furfural was adsorbed faster than 5-HMF by both pyrochars and totally removed after 3 h of contact. Finally, the two pyrochars were found efficient in the detoxification of corn stalks and Douglas fir wood chips hydrolysates without affecting the soluble sugars concentrations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.