The development survey of Extracellular Biopolymeric Flocculants (EBFs) and flocculant- producing bacteria were introduced; some EBFs discovered in recent years were listed with their properties and chemistry components. Components analyses and mechanisms of flocculation and the factors might influence the activity of EBFs were given emphasis to discuss, genetics and metabolic mechanism study on flocculant-producing bacteria were summarized in detail, and the development and study tendency of microbial flocculant were put forward.