Dynamics and oxygen transfer of a novel vertical tubular biological reactor (VTBR) for wastewater treatment were investigated in this paper. It was showed that the dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) in VTBR is higher than that in the conventional bubble column. When the ratio of gas and liquid flow rates was greater than 6.44, there were no phenomena of deficiency oxygen in all reactors. The volume oxygen transfer coefficient (kLa) was between 0.005 and 0.025 1/s. The multi-stage series CSTR and PFR model were developed to describe the dynamics of VTBR. It was revealed that the PFR model was proper to describe the dynamics of VTBR of which maximum error was only 25%. The industrial effluents from Dalian Bangchui Island Beer Company were utilized to verify the two models. It was suggested that when the ratio of gas-liquid was greater than 6.44, the removal efficiency of COD could be obtained more than 80%. (C) 2009 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.