Few studies on the adsorption dynamics and breakthrough characteristics based on the fluidization condition have been reported. In a fluidized bed adsorption reactor with phenol as the adsorbate and granular activated carbon as the adsorbent, the adsorption efficiency, adsorption dynamic characteristics, adsorption breakthrough curves and adsorption capacities were studied and compared with those of a fixed bed operated under the same conditions. The results showed that the adsorption efficiencies exceeded 93% in 5 min in both the fluidized conditions and fixed conditions at the superficial velocities of 8 mm x s(-1) and 13 mm x s(-1). Meanwhile, the above adsorption reactions fitted to Pseudo-second-order with linear correlation coefficients greater than 0.999. The adsorption capacity of fluidized conditions was 8.77 mg x g(-1) and 24.70 mg x g(-1) at the superficial velocities of 6 mm x s(-1) and 8 mm x s(-1). Generally, the fluidized bed reactor showed a higher adsorption efficiency and greater adsorption capacity than the fixed bed reactor.