Food processing industry produces huge quantities of lipids rich wastewater which affect negatively on the environment. However, wastewater represents an attractive and sustainable source for biofuels production via robust anaerobic digestion process. Hydrogen (H-2) and ethanol (Et-OH) production from lipids rich wastewater via up-flow anaerobic staged reactor (UASR) was investigated at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and organic loading rates (OLRs). H-2 and Et-OH production significantly (p < 0.01) increased from 44.6 +/- 20.9 to 80.3 +/- 19.9 L/day and from 107.6 +/- 25.8 to 195.2 +/- 22.2 mg/L at decreasing the HRT from 22 to 12 h, respectively. Likely, the production of H-2 and Et-OH was largely deteriorated at reducing the OLR from 45 to 12.7 gCOD/L/day. H-2 production amounted to 26.2 and 120 L/day at OLRs of 12.7 and 45 gCOD/L/day, respectively. The palmitate, stearate, and oleate were substantially increased from 100 to 1249 mg/L, from 122 to 1213 mg/L and from 67 to 1187 mg/L at increasing the initial lipids concentration from 2 to 10 g/L, respectively. Two different Clostridium sp. namely EBR-02E-0045, and EBR-02E-0046 were detected and identified in the reactor. Based on these results, it is recommended to apply the UASR for the treatment of lipids rich wastewater simultaneously with 2-biofuels production at OLR not exceeding 45 gCOD/L/day and HRT of 12 h. (C) 2017 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.