Biomass is an attractive feedstock for production of ethanol and chemicals as petroleum substitutes that can complement the current corn-based industry. Before biomass-based fuels and chemicals become an economic reality, several key steps in the depolymerization of biomass to constituent sugars need to be addressed. One is cost-effective depolymerization of cellulose to glucose by fungal cellulases before fermentation to fuels and chemicals by microbes. We have identified a thermophilic facultative anaerobe, Bacillus coagulans, with versatile metabolic capability as the microbial platform for SSF of biomass to products. This sporogenic lactic acid bacterium grows and ferments sugars such as glucose and xylose at 50-55 °C and pH 5.0 that are also optimum for the activity of commercial fungal cellulases. Because of these properties, simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) of cellulose to products by B. coagulans requires significantly less cellulase for optimum volumetric productivity than at a sub-optimal temperature for SSF, such as 30-35 °C utilizing yeast or lactic acid bacteria. Current progress in the development of B. coagulans, a genetically recalcitrant bacterium, as a microbial biocatalyst for production of ethanol or optically pure lactic acid will be presented and discussed.