Comparison of three fermentation strategies for alleviating the negative effect of the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate on lignocellulosic ethanol production

•Three fermentation methods to improve ethanol production via ionic liquid technology.•Ethanol productivity increased by 22.2% by increasing its inoculum size to 0.1.•Two step fermentation increased its ethanol productivity by 28.9%.•Fed batch fermentation increased its ethanol productivity by 35.0%•These methods greatly improved ethanol production of ionic liquid treated biomass.