Stillage (distillery wastewater) is the main by-product originating in distilleries, and its volume is approximately 10 times that of ethanol produced. It is not surprising that the utilization of the stillage raises serious problems, and that many attempts have been made all over the world to solve them. In Poland most of the ethanol (about 90%) is produced from starch-based feedstocks, i.e. grains and potatoes. Starch feedstocks are widely used for spirit production also in other European countries, as well as outside Europe. The manuscript provides an overview of global fuel ethanol production and information on methods used for starch-based stillage biodegradation and utilization. The methods presented in this paper have been classified into two major groups. One of these includes the mode of utilizing starch stillage, the other one comprises methods, both aerobic and anaerobic, by which the stillage can be biodegraded.Scarcely 5 per cent of world's ethanol production comes from chemical synthesis. More than 95 per cent of the *Corresponding author ethanol produced is obtained from agricultural or agriculture-related feedstocks. Of these, sugar-based feedstocks account for approximately 42%, and non-sugar feedstocks (mainly starch-based ones) for about 58% of the ethanol volume produced (Tolmasquim, 2007). It seems interesting to note that about 67% of the global ethanol volume (in 2006 this was a total of 39 billion litres (REN21, 2008)) is used for fuel production.

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