Rice husk is a massive byproduct of the agricultural sector, but less effort has been paid for its recycling.In this study, ultrasound-assisted inorganic treatment with HNO 3 , H 2 SO 4 , and H 2 O 2 was adopted to modify rice husk as a biomass catalyst. The activity of produced biomass catalyst was assessed in hydrogen production through the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride in an alkaline solution. The characterization of as-prepared biomass catalysts revealed that HNO 3 was an e cient agent to protonate the surface of rice husk and make active sites available for the hydrolysis reactions. In addition, ultrasound-assisted HNO 3 treatment caused a constructive effect on the structural property of rice husk and increased the surface area from 1.9 m 2 .gr − 1 to 17 m 2 .gr − 1 and pore volume from 0.45 cm 3 .gr − 1 to 3.9 cm 3 .gr − 1 . According to optimum synthesizing conditions (45 wt% HNO 3 and 10 min ultrasonication), ARH-N 45 -10 could produce 745 ml.gr − 1 hydrogen from the alkaline solution of NaBH 4 at ambient conditions. Based on the kinetic study, the catalytic hydrolysis of NaBH 4 by modi ed rice husk followed rst-order kinetic concerning the NaBH 4 per xed NaOH ratio. Moreover, the thermodynamic analysis indicated that hydrolysis of NaBH 4 and formation of hydrogen on the modi ed rice husk is an endothermic and spontaneous reaction, where the hydrogen generated at 55˚C (5280 ml.gr − 1 ) was seven times more than that at ambient temperature and also activation energy was calculated 57.68 kJ.mol − 1 from Arrhenius plot.