Display omitted •Succinic acid (>80%) was achieved from ultrasonic oxidation of furfural.•The statistical design provided the optimum conditions.•SO3H-CD-carbon showed well activity and recyclability. The selective transformation of furfural (FF) into bio-based succinic acid (SA) promoted by co-existence of H2O2 and SO3H-CD-carbon catalyst was investigated using an ultrasonic system. This research was proposed on the novel catalytic system with the environmental friendly for SA production. A new SO3H-CD-carbon catalyst was synthesized via in-situ hydrothermal carbonization with sulfonation using β-cyclodextrin (CD) as a carbon source and hydroxyethylsulfonic acid as a sulfonating agent. The results showed that the synergistic effects of SO3H-CD-carbon catalyst and H2O2 on the FF oxidation had a significant importance for improving the SA yield. A highest SA yield of 81.2% was successfully achieved through the optimum conditions obtained from 2k factorial and Box-Behnken designs. The SO3H-CD-carbon catalyst also exhibited the better catalytic performance when compared with various commercial sulfonic acid catalysts such as Amberlyst-35, Nafion SAC-13 and SiO2-Tosic acid. Moreover, the spent catalyst was be easily regenerated recovering its initial density of acid sites which resulted in the well recyclability up to 13 cycles.