Abstract: Activated sludge in enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) has a high content of phosphorus and can release phosphate under anaerobic conditions. Phosphate recovery from EBPR excess sludge has great potential，so the vital problem focuses on the optimization of the parameters that affect anaerobic phosphate release of EBPR sludge in order to maximize the release of phosphate. The recent advances in phosphate release from EBPR sludge are analyzed and summarized in this paper. Although plenty of research in this field has been done and some results are obtained，many disputed and unanswered questions still exist and further study is needed.