AbstractBACKGROUNDA novel double acid site solid catalyst (Al‐OCS‐0.1) having an ordered mesoporous structure was synthesized by grafting sulfonic acid groups on an oxidized ordered mesoporous carbon (OOMC) support and loading 10% Al2(SO4)3.RESULTAssessments using Field emission scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction showed that the OMC structure remained unchanged after the chemical modification and Al2(SO4)3 loading. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and average pore size of Al‐OCS‐0.1 decreased to 181 m2 g−1 and 7.1 nm after loading Al2(SO4)3, respectively. Ammonia temperature‐programmed desorption (NH3‐TPD) and Pyridine adsorption infrared spectroscopy (Py‐IR) demonstrated that Al‐OCS‐0.1 had abundant Brønsted and Lewis acid sites. The ammonia desorption of Al‐OCS‐0.1 increased from 2.0 to 7.2 mmol g−1 after loading Al2(SO4)3.CONCLUSIONThe Al‐OCS‐0.1 was used to catalyze the synthesis of ethyl levulinate from cellulose in ethanol and gave an extremely high yield of 50.8 mol% after 5 h at 200 °C. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).