Abstract: Furfural was prepared from hemicelluloses and lignocellulosic biomass in the presence of the γ-valerolactone/water solvent system with low cost sulfate as catalyst. The yield of furfural could be obtained as high as 50.2%, accompanying with 95.5% of hemicellulose conversion. Furthermore, furfural also could be prepared from real lignocellulosic biomass corncob and bamboo meal in the above catalytic system with the yield of 39.5% and 29.7%, respectively. In this case, corncob and bamboo meal conversion could be 86.5% and 80.50%.