Lignocellulose has considerable reserves in nature and is an important source of biofuel production. Consolidated bioprocessing refers to the process that conversion of lignocellulose into a biological product in one step without the addition of hydrolytic enzyme and has important application value in today’s increasingly serious energy crisis. The synthetic microbial consortium is formed by the co-culture of two or more pure cultured microorganisms (wild or engineered strain), and it has the advantages of low complexity and high stability, and can achieve specific functions by coordinating microbial interactions and the stability of the entire ecosystem. In addition, the rapid development of synthetic biology facilitates the development of new methods and tools for the construction and optimization of synthetic microbial communities. This article focuses on the consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulose, and reviews the research progress of synthetic microbial communities in this field. We first briefly introduce that systems biology provides guidance for the design of synthetic microbial communities, and then detail the design principles, optimization tools, application and challenges in the actual production of synthetic microbial consortium, which provides a reference for consolidated bioprocessing of lignocellulose.