TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The cooking liquor comprises 0.5-20 wt.%, based on the cooking liquor, of sodium hydroxide. The cooking liquor has a sulfidity of 15-40%. The active alkali is 10 to 20%. The cooking liquor to biomass ratio is 3 to 5.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: The process further involves providing at least a portion of the aqueous liquor stream to the hydrolysate prior to fermenting in step (g). The process further involves providing at least a portion of the aqueous liquor stream to the washed digested biomass stream prior to hydrolyzing in step (f). About 0.1-3%, based on the cooking liquor, of anthraquinone, sodium borate and/or polysulfides is present in the cooking liquor of step (d). The process further involves concentrating the washed digested biomass stream from step (e) by mechanical dewatering prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f) thereby increasing the solids content of the washed digested biomass stream from 15 to 40 wt.% solids. The process further involves subjecting the washed digested biomass stream to oxygen delignification prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f); mechanically refining solids in the washed digested biomass stream prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f), thereby reducing the solids in size; subjecting the thus-concentrated washed digested biomass stream to oxygen delignification prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f); subjecting the thus-concentrated washed digested biomass stream to mechanically refining solids in the washed digested biomass stream prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f), thereby reducing the solids in size; subjecting the thus-concentrated washed digested biomass stream to oxygen delignification and mechanically refining solids in the washed digested biomass stream prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f), thereby reducing the solids in size. The process further involves subjecting the washed digested biomass stream to oxygen delignification and mechanically refining solids in the washed digested biomass stream prior to contacting the washed digested biomass stream with cellulases in step (f), thereby reducing the solids in size. In step (e), the water stream is flowing countercurrent to the digested biomass steam. The process further involves: (i) removing at least a portion of the lignin from one of washed digested biomass stream, hydrolysate or alcohol stream prior to step (d) or (e) thereby providing a washed digested biomass stream, hydrolysate, or alcohol stream containing less than 5% lignin content based on the stream; (j) concentrating the chemical liquor stream from step (d) to produce a concentrated chemical liquor stream; (k) burning the concentrated chemical liquor stream to produce a chemical recycle stream; (l) recausticizing the chemical recycle stream to produce a cooking liquor feed stream; (m) recycling the cooking feed stream to the digester in step (d) as at least a portion of the cooking liquor; and (n) removing at least a portion of the lignin from the aqueous effluent stream to produce an aqueous effluent recycle stream which is recycled through the chemical recycle stream. The cooking liquor has a pH of 8-14 and a temperature of 100-230 degrees C. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.