We demonstrate a general method for the synthesis of biomass-derived hierarchical porous CdS/M/TiO2 (M = Au, Ag, Pt, Pd) ternary heterojunctions for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. A typical biomass-wood are used as the raw sources while five species of wood (Fir, Ash, White Pine, Lauan and Shiraki) are chosen as templates for the synthesis of hierarchical porous TiO2. The as-obtained products inherited the hierarchical porous features with pores ranging from micrometers to nanometers, with improved photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity than non-templated counterparts. Noble metals M (M = Pt, Au, Ag, Pd) and CdS are loaded via a two-step photodeposition method to form core (metal)/shell (GdS) structures. The photocatalytic modules CdS(shell)/metal (core)/TiO2 heterostructures, have demonstrated to increase visible light harvesting significantly and to increase the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity. The H-2 evolution rates of CdS/Pd/TiO2 ternary heterostructures are about 6.7 times of CdS/TiO2 binary heterojunctions and 4 times higher than Pd/CdS/TiO2 due to the vertical electron transfer process. The design of such system is beneficial for enhanced activity from morphology control and composition adjustment, which would provide some new pathways for the design of promising photocatalytic systems for enhanced performance. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.