The invention relates to a preparation method of cellulose acetate propionate, belonging to technical field of cellulose modification. The preparation method of cellulose acetate propionate comprises the following steps of: taking cellulose as a raw material, activating by a mixed solution of acetic anhydride and propionic anhydride, adding acetic acid and propionic acid solvents and a solid super acidic catalyst for esterification, after esterification, filtering to remove the catalyst, adding waste acid water for hydrolyzing, settling out by waste acid water, and finally obtaining the cellulose acetate propionate by steps of filtering, washing, drying and the like. The production process is simple to operate, the solid super acidic catalyst substitutes the concentrated sulfuric acid catalyst and can be cyclically used for many times, thus alleviating the problem of serious corrosion of the original process equipment. The waste acid water generated in the reaction process only contains acetic acid and propionic acid without sulfuric acid and can be fully recovered and cyclically used, thus decreasing the tension in environmental protection, realizing zero discharge and greatly reducing the production cost. The cellulose acetate propionate prepared by the method has fine toughness, heat stability and compatibility, thus being extensively used.