Abstract: Shale gas is an important part of China's new energy strategy. The exploitation of shale gas commonly relies on hydraulic fracturing technology, with the generation of large quantities of flowback and produced water. To realize the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it is significant to treat the flowback and produced water with high salinity and various organics cost-effectively and environmentally friendly. In this review, recent progresses on biological methods (activated sludge, biofilm, membrane bioreactor, aerobic granular sludge, etc.) that used for flowback and produced water treatment are summarized, and the advantages and drawbacks of different biological methods are compared based on the characteristics of the flowback and produced water. Further, the prospects of bioaugmentation technology on flowback and produced water treatment are analyzed. This study provids an important guidance for green and efficient removal of pollutants (organic matter and ammonia nitrogen, etc.) in shale gas flowback and produced water.