It is very important to prepare bio-based chemicals from biomass in an eco-friendly and economical process. Herein, a simple and efficient route was proposed to synthesize the phosphoric carbons via one-pot hydrothermal method using glucose as carbon precursor in an aqueous H3PO4 solution. The experimental results presented that the acid density and surface area of the phosphoric carbons were adjustable and showed excellent catalytic activity for biochemical 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) production from fructose dehydration. 93.7 and 80.9% HMF yield was obtained over the carbon material in DMSO (solvent) and 2-butanol-H2O biphasic system under the investigated reaction conditions, respectively. The cost-efficient solid acids phosphoric carbon with adjustable acidity density have been synthesized, and the catalysts show good performances on 5-hydromethylfurfural (HMF) production from fructose. 93% of HMF yield was obtained catalyzed by phosphoric carbon in DMSO system. [GRAPHICS] .