Abstract: Membrane separation technology is an effective, environmental friendly and easily enlarged technology. It occupies an important place in the industrial water treatment field. Membrane technology has been applied in lignocellulosic biorefinery field in recent years. In this paper, the principles and features of membrane technology, including ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, membrane distillation, pervaporation and electrodialysis, were stated. In addition, the application advances of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis in the lignocellulosic biorefinery(pretreatment of hydrolysate, enzymatic hydrolysate and fermentation hydrolysate) were elaborated in detail, mainly focusing on recovery and concentration of high value-added compositions. Furthermore, the research tendency of membrane separation technology was also proposed.