Low-cost bagasse and microcrystalline cellulose were used as the raw materials to prepare solid acid catalysts via incomplete carbonization and sulphonation. The solid acid synthesized from microcrystalline cellulose (C-SO3H) exhibited better catalytic performance than that synthesized from bagasse. C-SO3H was characterized by various techniques to study the reaction conditions of the catalytic transformation from glucose and fructose to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF). The conversion of glucose was 73.29 +/- 0.74%, and the conversion of fructose reached a maximum of 98.85 +/- 0.01%. The selectivity and yield of 5-HMF reached maxima of 65.04 +/- 0.28% and 64.29 +/- 0.27 %, respectively. Using C-SO3H as the catalyst, the conversion of glucose followed second-order kinetics at various temperatures, while the conversion of fructose followed first-order kinetics. The activation energies of the glucose and fructose transformations were 73.75 and 51.87 kJ.mol(-1), respectively.