Abstract: Lignocellulose is pretreated using solvent with little water footprint. Both a solvent and water are used for saccharification and separating the components of lignocellulose. By adding a small amount of an inorganic acid, lignin is dissolved and hemicellulose is hydrolyzed under appropriate reaction temperature and pressure. Both are dissolved to form liquid phase with solid cellulose residue left. The relative volatility difference between the solvent and water is used to selectively remove more of the solvent. More particularly, drying with air-suction at a relatively low temperature helps remove and recycle the solvent from the cellulose solid residue. Thus, water consumption and the subsequent wastewater treatment can be significantly reduced with little water footprint while achieving the original desired efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis.