In this paper, ethylene glycol wastewater (EGW) treatment was studied by using one anaerobic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel beads based biofilm reactor. Enhanced by PVA-gel beads based biofilm, organic loading rate (OLR) about 11 g COD l^-1 d^-1 was achieved at the end of this study. Black PVA-gel beads with an average settling velocity 322 m h^-1 (9 cm s^-1) and 0.24g VSS g^-1 PVA gel mainly composed of Methanosarcina spp. were got, while no natural granules were found in this experiment. The COD removal efficiency in this study could reach a high value about 95%. Most COD removal was contributed by the PVA-gel beads based biofilm. It could be concluded that the PVA-gel beads based biofilm reactor is appropriate for EGW treatment.