Xylose is an important and major monosaccharide that extensively exists in the cellulose fermentation industry. Here we present the first report on the direct energy conversion from xylose achieved by using novel xylose dehydrogenase (XDH) surface displayed bacteria (XDH-bacteria) based enzymatic biofuel cell. The maximum power density and the open-circuit potential of the cell are 63μWcm−2 and 0.58V, respectively. The as-prepared BFC holds great potential to make use of biomass from lignocellulose degradation as source energy, which avoids the bottleneck in conversion of xylose to ethanol met by conventional fermentation method. ► First report on the direct energy conversion from xylose using xylose dehydrogenase displayed bacteria based biofuel cell. ► Maximum power density of the cell up to 63μWcm−2. ► The open-circuit potential of the cell up to 0.58V.