The potential of black water and a mixture of black water and kitchen waste as substrates for on-site dark fermentative hydrogen production was screened in upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors at 20 degrees C. Three different inocula were used with and without heat treatment. With glucose, the highest specific hydrogenogenic activity was 69 ml H2 g volatile solids(-1) d(-1) in batch assays and the highest hydrogen yield 0.44 mol H2 mol glucose(-1) in upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor. The mixture of black water and kitchen waste degraded readily into volatile fatty acids in the reactors, thus showing potential for hydrogen production. In the conditions applied, however, the highest end product was propionate and no hydrogen was produced. Black water alone apparently contained too little readily soluble carbohydrates for hydrogen producing bacteria, and little VFA and no hydrogen was produced.