Turkey is the world leader in hazelnut production and a large amount of residues is produced during its harvesting and processing. So far, the residues of hazelnut production had no economic value and usually burned in the fields. Obtaining valuable products such as ethanol from hazelnut pruning waste (HPW) can add value to those. Ethanol produced by microorganisms via fermentation is a promising alternative biofuel. Ethanol has been produced for a long time from sugary substances, while lignocellulosic biomasses (LCBs) are interesting alternative to fossil fuel based resources in order to have a sustainable production process. Liquid hot water (LHW) treatment is one of the pretreatment processes necessary to facilitate enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose into glucose before ethanol fermentation. Organosolv is similar to LHW treatment except that ethanol-water mixture is generally used is the liquid part instead of only water. LHW could remove the hemicelluloses from the lignocellulosic matrix to some extent, while adding H2SO4 improved the hemicellulose removal. Organosolv was effective on removal of lignin as well as of hemicellulose. Acid catalysis improved the hemicellulose solubilization in organosolv, like in LHW treatment. After acid catalyzed organosolv, cellulose content of the HPW was increased to 67.91%. This sample was hydrolyzed with a conversion efficiency of 87.32%. Hydrolysate containing 60.63 g/L glucose was used as the medium for ethanol production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. At an 83.49% theoretical yield, 22.2 g/L ethanol was obtained after 6 h. These results demonstrated that hazelnut pruning waste has potential to be used as a feedstock for ethanol production.