Abstract: At present, there are various methods to remove volatile organic compounds(VOCs), including physical, chemical and biological ones. Among treatment methods, biological method has been paid more attention because of its advantages of fewer by-products. However, the efficiency of biological method to remove hydrophobic pollutants is low due to the limitation of mass transfer and other factors, adding additives is one of the solutions. In this paper, the kinds of additives used in the process and the influence of additives on the performance of bioreactor were reviewed, including the effects on degradation efficiency, biomass, pressure drop, biofilm and mineralization rate. It can be concluded that the addition of additives has a positive effect on the performance of the bioreactor in removing VOCs, which can improve the degradation efficiency and reduce the packing material clogging in the process of operation to some extent. Additionally, there are few studies on the effect of additives on VOCs degradation mechanism; therefore, the future research direction of additives in bioreactor was prospected.