Efficient H-2 producing bacterial strain Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum IIT BT-ST1 was isolated from the anaerobic digester. Taguchi design of experiment was applied to evaluate the influence of the temperature, pH, glucose, FeSO4 and yeast extract on H2 production with three levels of orthogonal array in the experimental design. Temperature showed most significant influence on the H2 production process. Investigation of mutual interaction between the process parameters was studied employing Box-Behnken design. Experimentally optimized process parameters (60 degrees C, pH 6.5, 20 mM FeSO4, 4 g L-1 yeast extract and 12 g L-1 glucose) gave the maximum H-2 production of 3930 mL L-1 in 24 h, which have close resemblance with the theoretical values. Continuous H-2 production using packed bed reactor was studied. Maximum H-2 production rate of 1691 mL L-1 h(-1) at a dilution rate of 0.6 h(-1) was observed which is about 10 times higher than the batch process. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.