Novel oxygen-releasing immobilized cell beads for bioremediation of BTEX-contaminated water

► A novel oxygen-releasing immobilized bead (ORICB) was prepared. ► The CaO2-encapsulated oxygen-releasing bead has high oxygen release capacity. ► The ORICBs-column rapidly and effectively degrades BTEX at HRT of 0.872 day. ► A high influent BTEX concentration did not markedly inhibit bioremediation. ► The DGGE profile indicates that the BTEX degrader distributed throughout the column.