In transient conditions close to the industrialized application situation, the removal of toluene was investigated with a lab-scale bio-trickling filter inoculated with pure bacterial culture (Pseudomonas putida). The start-up process and the ability of resisting different toluene loading in the steady state on the performance of the bio-trickling filter were studied. The microstructure of biofilm in the filter was also observed. With inlet concentration range from 544 to 1044 mg x m(-3) at the temperature ranging from 17 to 26 degrees C, the removal efficiency of toluene was almost 100% at the residence time of 54 s and 43.2 s. The maximum volumetric removal loading of 105.35 g x (m3 x h)(-1) was achieved. The results indicate that it was feasible to remove toluene by Pseudomonas putida which had not be acclimated by toluene. In the steady state, the bio-trickling filter had a high flexibility for the load change and the removal efficiency of the reactor was not influenced by the variance of residence time and inlet concentration. The rapid increase of biofilm can be controlled by adjusting the interval of nutrition liquid accession. There were some changes in bacterial community, and lots of micro-pore existed in the biofilm. It was proved that the absorption of the biofilm was an important precondition for the biodegradation of toluene.