Abstract:Refractory organic substances are widely released into environment, which causes adverse impact on human health and environment due to their bioaccumulation, persistence and biotoxicant. Recently, many microbial agents have been applied to treat the refractory organic contaminants. In this paper, we reviewed the developments of microbial agent in domestic and overseas, and described the microbial cell immobilizing technologies and the immobilized carries in the preparations of microbial agents. The application of micro-bial agents to the treatment of phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls were summarized. In addition, the main problems, as well as the new perspectives, in this field were also discussed.