To develop thermostable ethanol fermentative yeast strain for lignocellulosic simultaneous saccharification and fermentation, high ethanol producing yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae CHY1012 and thermostable yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus CHY1703 were fused by protoplast fusion. The thermostable fusant, CHY1612 was identified as a Kluyveromyces marxianus by phenotypic and physiological characteristics, as well as molecular analysis based on the D1/D2 domains of the large subunit (26S) rDNA gene and the internally transcribed spacer (ITS) 1 + 2 regions. For lignocellulosic ethanol production, AFEX pretreated barley straw at $150^{circ}C$ for 90 min was used in a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process using thermotolerant CHY1612. The SSF from 16% pretreated barley straw at $43^{circ}C$ gave a saccharification ratio of 90.5%, a final ethanol concentration of 38.5 g/L, and a theoretical yield of 91.2%. These results show that K. marxianus CHY1612 has potential for lignocellulosic ethanol production through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with further development of process.