Abstract: This study mainly focused on green catalysis for furfural production. Solid acid catalyst SO42-/ZrO2 prepared by precipitation-impregnation for furfural production from xylose was studied. The optimal catalytic reaction conditions were determined by L9(34) orthogonal design, and then the preparative conditions of catalyst related to furfural yield such as concentration of sulfuric acid, calcined temperature and calcined time were investigated. The results showed that the optimal catalytic reaction conditions were xylose concentration of 10 g/L, catalyst loading of 20 g/L, reaction temperature of 220℃ and reaction time of 3 h. The optimal preparative conditions of catalyst were: 1 mol/L H2SO4, calcination temperature 550℃, calcination time 5 h. It resulted in the maximum yield of 47%. These results imply that SO42-/ZrO2 is a promising solid acid catalyst for the conversion of xylose to furfural and deserved further investigation.