Photosynthetic bacteria can produce hydrogen from various organic substrates in the presence of illumination energy. This study produced biohydrogen from maize straws by an enriched consortium via photo-fermentation pathway. The maize straws can be utilized by the consortium as substrate only after micro-grinding and enzyme hydrolysis pre treatments. Batch tests at 30 g/L maize straw, pH 7.0, 30 degrees C, illumination intensity 2000 lx yielded 9.33 mol H-2/mol glucose with illumination energy conversion rate of 13.7% and substrate-energy conversion rate of 5.3%. Equivalently, the biohydrogen productivity is about 3 mmol/g maize straw. Reaction temperature can affect hydrogen production rate but only minimally affect the delayed time. The activation energy for biohydrogen production was estimated to be 5.65 kJ/mol. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.