The invention provides a strain of furfural-resistant zymomonas mobilis, which contains rpoD gene through mutation reconstruction, the points of the gene-coded RpoD protein are mutated to K219E, V522G and Q649L, the tolerance concentration of the furfural-resistant zymomonas mobilis is at least 3g / L furfural; the name of the furfural-resistant zymomonas mobilis is zymomonas. Mobilis ZM4-MF, the furfural-resistant zymomonas mobilis is collected by China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center, the collection number is CGMCC NO.10616, and the collection time is March, 12th, 2015. The invention also provides a method for preparing the bacterial strain, which comprises the steps of preparing mutation rpoD gene, constructing recombinant plasmid, performing plasmid transformation, and using furfural with different gradients for screening. The invention also discloses an application of the bacterial strain for producing ethanol.