In order to improve the productivity of ethanol by sugar-alcohol-tolerant Saccharrnnyces cerevisiae Dl, the effect of addition of soybean meal on the alcohol fermentaton was investigated. The addition of soybean meal led to the increase of the ethanol productivity and viable cell concentration. Increasing the amount of soybean meal increased the number of viable cells and the consumption percentage of glucose. The water-soluble fraction of soybean meal was nearly as effective as whole-soybean meal, whereas the lipidic fraction had no positive effect. The addition of 4% soybean meal increases the rate of ethanol production regardless of the initial concentrations of glucose. The rate of glucose consumption fermenting a soybean mil supplemented mecum was higher than possible in a non-supplemented medium, either in the absence or in the presence of ethanol. But the percentage of ethanol inhibition of the glucose consumption rate was identical for supplemented and unsupplemented media The increase of final ethanol concentration could not be attributed to an increase of ethanol tolerance of yeast cells but to the satisfaction of nutritional deficiencies.