It has been confirmed that Saccharomyces sp. WO can produce high concentration of ethanol. However, this yeast strain cannot secrete inulinase. Therefore, in this study, inulin was hydrolyzed into reducing sugar by the recombinant inulinase produced by Pichia pastoris X-33/pPICZaA-INU1. It was found that 38.2 U of the recombinant inulinase per gram of inulin was suitable for the inulin hydrolysis and ethanol production by Saccharomyces sp. WO and the fermentation period was 120 h. At the end of the fermentation, over 14.6 ml of ethanol per 100 ml of the fermented medium was produced, the ethanol productivity was over 0.384 g of ethanol/g of inulin and over 98.8% of total sugar was utilized. When the Saccharomyces sp. WO was grown in the mixture of 4.0% hydrolysate of soybean meal and 20.0% of the hydrolysate of inulin for 120 h, over 14.9 ml of ethanol per 100 ml of the fermented medium was yielded, the ethanol productivity was over 0.393 g of ethanol/g of inulin and 98.9% of total sugar was used by the yeast strain. When Saccharomyces sp. WO carrying the same inulinase gene was grown in the medium containing 50 g of the tuber meal of Jerusalem artichoke per 100 ml for 144 h, over 12.1 +/- 0.35% ml of ethanol per 100 ml of the fermented medium was yielded, the ethanol productivity was 0.319 +/- 0.9 g of ethanol/g of sugar and 3.7% (w/v) of total sugar and 0.5% (w/v) of reducing sugar were left in the fermented media. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.