The highest glucose and ethanol production yields were obtained after the pretreat-ment with 0.5 M sodium carbonate at 100◦C and 1:20 g/g solid loading for 3 h. This pretreatment removedmore than 90% of silica from the straw and improved the enzymatic hydrolysis yield from 35% to 100%.Afterward, ethanol was produced by simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) from the pre-treated straw at 37◦C using M. hiemalis, and the results were compared with SSF using Saccharomycescerevisiae.