The synthesis of furfural via solid acid-catalyzed dehydration of D-xylose is considered to be highly economic, easy separation and environment-friendly. In this work, the catalytic performances of different carbon- based solid acids have been investigated on the dehydration of D-xylose in detail. The used carbon-based solid acids include polymeric lignosulfonate materials (LF-A, LF-B, LF-C, LF-D) and sulfonated carbons (FS), in which the polymeric lignosulfonate material was obtained through phenol-formaldehyde condensation reaction of lignonsulfonate with aldehyde, and sulfonated carbon was prepared using the hydro-thermal synthesis method with furfural and sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDBS) as the raw materials. The influences of various catalysts, reaction media, reaction time, dosage of catalyst and temperature on the D-xylose dehydration were investigated, respectively. As a result, it was found that catalytic activity of LF-A is higher than those of other catalysts where more than 72.9% yield of furfural was obtained for 4 h at 170 oC in γ-butyrolactone solvent. Moreover, these catalytic materials are detected with XRD, FT-IR, TG-DTG, SEM and TEM techniques, and the relationship between the structures and their activities has been also discussed.