Polyamide granules with high specific area were used for covalent immobilization of Trichosporon cutaneum R57. In order to increase the concentration of active (amino) groups necessary for cell immobilization, the polyamide (PA) sorbent was chemically modified. The optimal conditions for covalent immobilization of the cells were determined. Phenol degradation was studied with chemically immobilized cells. For comparison, parallel experiments were carried out with physically immobilized and free cells. Both covalently-bound and free cells fully degraded phenol at concentrations up to 1.0 g/litre. The optimal pH of phenol degradation by covalently bound cells was 6.0. The number of cycles of effective phenol degradation by immobilized cells was studied. The results obtained for covalently bound Trichosporon cutaneum R57 cells on PA granules clearly show the possibility far their application for the purification of waste water containing phenol.