The activated sludge obtained from wastewater coke oven plant was immobilized by entrapment with polyethylene glycol (PEG). The effects of several factors on the biodegradation of CN- from synthetic wastewater were investigated using batch and continuous reactors. The degradation rate of CN- increased with increasing of the immobilized bead volume in the reactor. Approximately 7.65 mg/L of NH4-N was produced upon the degradation of 35 mg/L of CN-. When high concentrations of the toxic cyanide complex were used in the testing of cyanide degradation, the free activated sludge could be inhibited more than that of the immobilized activated sludge. When the phenol concentration was higher than 400 mg/L in the synthetic wastewater, approximately 98.4% of CN- was removed within 42 hours by the immobilized activated sludge. However, the cyanide was not completely degraded by the free activated sludge. This indicates that high phenol concentrations can act as a toxic factor for the free activated sludge. A CN- concentration of less than 1 mg/L was achieved by the immobilized sludge at the loading rate of 0.025 kg CN-/m3-d. Moreover, it was found that the HRT should be kept for 48 hours in order to obtain stable treatment conditions.