Abstract This study presents a literature review on the treatment of coke wastewater in integrated way by hybrid treatment methods like chemical treatment make the wastewater suitable for biological treatment followed by nanofiltration helps in removal of toxic compounds. The application of integrated technology is however beset by the preponderance of toxic compounds like cyanide, phenol and ammonia; and the paper looks at its optimization via pre- and post-treatment to curb the prevailing problems, in the light of possible discharge and re-use/recycling/resource recovery, leading to efficient environmental protection. In this review, extensive list of various methods of removal of cyanide, phenol, ammonia and COD from coke wastewater from literature has been compiled and their removal capacities under various conditions (microbial, chemical, one stage, two stage, three stage activated sludge processes, advanced treatment, membrane integrated hybrid process) for their removal as available in the literature are presented along with highlighting and discussing the key advancement on the application of membrane.