In this study, the lignocellulosic residue coffee pulp was used as carbon source in fermentative L(+)-lactic acid production using Bacillus coagulans. After thermo-chemical treatment at 121 degrees C for 30 min in presence of 0.18 mol L-1 H2SO4 and following an enzymatic digestion using Accellerase 1500 carbon-rich hydrolysates were obtained. Two different coffee pulp materials with comparable biomass composition were used, but sugar concentrations in hydrolysates showed variations. The primary sugars were (g L-1) glucose (20-30), xylose (15-25), sucrose (5-11) and arabinose (0.7-10). Fermentations were carried out at laboratory (2 L) and pilot (50 L) scales in presence of 10 g L-1 yeast extract. At pilot scale carbon utilization and lactic acid yield per gram of sugar consumed were 94.65% and 0.78 g g(-1), respectively. The productivity was 4.02 g L-1 h(-1). Downstream processing resulted in a pure formulation containing 937 g L-1 L(+)-lactic acid with an optical purity of 99.7%. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.