The performance of alkalis (NaOH and Ca(OH)(2)) and acids (H2SO4, HCl, H3PO4, CH3COOH, and HNO3) in the pretreatment of rice husk was screened, and a suitable reagent was assessed for subsequent optimization using response surface methodology. From the assessment, HCl that hydrolysed rice husk well was optimized with three parameters (HCl loading, pretreatment duration, and temperature) using Box-Behnken Design. The optimized condition (0.5% (w/v) HCl loading, 125 degrees C, 1.5 h) is relatively mild, and resulted in similar to 22.3 mg TRS/ml hydrolysate. The reduced model developed has good predictability, where the predicted and experimental results differ by only 2%. The comprehensive structural characterization studies that involved FT-IR, XRD, SEM, and BET surface area determination showed that the pretreated rice husk consisted mainly of cellulose and lignin. Compared to untreated rice husk, pretreated rice husk possessed increased pore size and pore volume, which are expected to be beneficial for fungal growth during fermentation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.