Abstract:With the increasing concentration of the hydrophobic organic pollutants (HOPs) in the environment, it is important to obtain the highly efficient HOPs-degrading bacteria. In recent years, the researches on improving HOPs microbial degradation using two-phase system have made some progresses. In this paper, the structure characteristics of two-phase systems, their enrichment principles for HOPs-degrading microorganisms, and main influencing factors, as well as their applications were reviewed. Additionally, the main challenges and new perspectives on accelerating the biodegradation and detoxification of toxic HOPs using the two-phase system were discussed.