In the present study, the photo-hydrogen production performances by Rhodopseudomonas palustris CQK 01 growing from the inoculated cells with ultra-sonication pretreatment (R. palustris CQK 01-USP) were experimentally investigated in batch culture and compared with that without pretreatment (R. palustris CQK 01-NP). It was found that the ultra-sonication pretreatment modified membrane morphology and broke up part of the cells, resulting in improvement of membrane permeability and bacterial activities and hence, helping the improvement of hydrogen production. The hydrogen production rate, hydrogen yield and energy conversion efficiency with R. palustris CQK 01-USP were increased to be nearly 2 times higher than that with R. palustris CQK 01-NP. The parametric study showed that under the conditions of initial glucose concentration 50 mmol/l, inoculum size 12%, illumination wavelength 590 nm, the photobioreactor with R. palustris CQK 01-USP obtained the optimal hydrogen production rate 0.54 mmol/l/h, hydrogen yield 1.2 mol-H(2)/mol-glucose and energy conversion efficiency 9.03%. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.