BackgroundAs one of the most abundant bioresource in nature, the value-added utilization of lignocellulosic biomass is limited due to its inherent stubbornness. Pretreatment is a necessary step to break down the recalcitrance of cell walls and achieve an efficient separation of three main components (cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin).ResultsIn this study, hemicelluloses and lignin inBoehmeria niveastalks were selectively extracted with a recyclable acid hydrotrope, an aqueous solution ofP-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH). 79.86% of hemicelluloses and 90.24% of lignin were removed under a mild pretreatment condition, C80T80t20, (acid concentration of 80 wt%, pretreatment temperature and time of 80 °C and 20 min, respectively). After ultrasonic treatment for 10 s, the residual cellulose-rich solid was directly converted into pulp. Subsequently, the latter was utilized to produce paper via mixing with softwood pulp. The prepared handsheets with a pulp addition of 15 wt% displayed higher tear strength (8.31 mN m2/g) and tensile strength (8.03 Nm/g) than that of pure softwood pulp. What’s more, the hydrolysates of hemicelluloses and the extracted lignin were transformed to furfural and phenolic monomers with yields of 54.67% and 65.3%, respectively.ConclusionsThe lignocellulosic biomass,Boehmeria niveastalks, were valorized to pulp, furfural, and phenolic monomers, successfully. And a potential solution of comprehensive utilization ofBoehmeria niveastalks was provided in this paper.Graphical AbstractSupplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13068-023-02351-x.