Abstract: The solid acid Al-MCM-41 was modified by sulfuric acid to prepare the catalyst SO₄^2-/Al-MCM-41 for furfural production from xylose dehydration. The catalyst was characterized by Fourier transform infrared(FT-IR) spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia(NH₃-TPD), and N₂ adsorption-desorption anslysis.The results showed that SO₄^2- was successfully introduced into the surface of Al-MCM-41 by sulfuric acid modification, which improved the acidity of the molecular sieve without changing the mesoporous structure of the molecular sieve.The influence of factors such as catalyst, solvent, reaction temperature and reaction time on the yield of furfural were investigated. The results showed that the highest yield of furfural was 62.45% in water/n-butanol reaction system(volume ratio of water and n-butanol 1:1, NaCl mass fraction in water 2%) with xylose as the raw material, ratio of liquor to material 20:1(mL: g) solid acid SO₄^2-/Al-MCM-41 as catalyst and mass ratio of raw material and catalyst 2:1 at 190℃ for 30 min, compared with molecular sieve Al-MCM-41 as catalyst, the yield of furfural increased by 21.82 percentage points. In addition, solid acid SO₄^2-/Al-MCM-41 also had a good catalytic effect on the preparation of furfural from hemicellulose, and 51.96% furfural yield was obtained from hemicellulose under more severe condition. The results of catalyst recycling study showed that the yield of furfural was about 54% when the solid acid catalyst was used for three times. With the increase of the catalyst use times, the catalytic capacity of the catalyst decreased to a certain extent. The catalyst regeneration could be carried out by means of high temperature roasting and sulfuric acid impregnation.