# Treatment Methods for Antibiotic Mycelial Residues: A Review
## 3 Treatment Methods for AMR
### Multi-Technology Coupling
#### 3.4.2. Physicochemical Technologies for Enhanced AD  
The synergistic integration of AD with physicochemical technologies demonstrates significant advantages in current technical frameworks. While AD is cost-effective, limitations include operational inefficiency, incomplete antibiotic degradation, and ARG horizontal transfer risk. AD efficiency is constrained by kinetic equilibria in multi-stage biochemical reactions, with the initial hydrolysis phase universally recognized as the rate-limiting step due to substrate recalcitrance [120; 121; 122]. Ionizing radiation technology leverages direct ionization effects and indirect free radical oxidation mechanisms characteristic of high-energy radiation to simultaneously dissociate biomass flocs and disrupt microbial cell walls, releasing extracellular polymeric substances and intracellular organics. This process significantly elevates soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), carbohydrates, and protein concentrations in the liquid phase, thereby enhancing biodegradability [123; 124; 125]. Notably, \(\gamma\)-irradiation induces marked shifts in microbial community richness and diversity. Post-treatment with 50 kGy radiation significantly increases the relative abundance of methanogenesis-facilitating microbes, like _Arobacter_, fostering microbial consortia conducive to subsequent acidogenesis and methanogenesis [20]. This directional regulation is amplified when combined with nano zero-valent iron (nZVI). The coupled irradiation-nZVI-AD system, despite reducing microbial diversity, enriches specific functional taxa (e.g., _Clostidium sensu strictio_), boosting hydrogen yield from 8.55 mL/g-VS to 10.9 mL/g-VS and increasing volatile fatty acid (VFA) metabolic flux by 122.7%, with acetate accounting for 73.5-83.8% of the total VFAs [35]. Alkaline pretreatment is another established AMR treatment method. By establishing a strongly alkaline environment, this technology multi-dimensionally optimizes AD of biomass waste. Its mechanisms include [126; 127; 128; 129; 130]:  
* Disrupting AMR cell wall/membrane structures to release endogenous organics;
* Catalyzing hydrolysis of macromolecular organics to improve substrate bioaccessibility;
* Degrading residual antibiotics via alkali-catalyzed reactions to alleviate metabolic inhibition;
* Inducing DNA hydrolysis to reduce ARGs abundance. Additionally, alkaline conditions promote targeted enrichment of functional microbial consortia, synergistically enhancing hydrogen and methane yields for high-efficiency energy recovery. [PERSON] et al. [131] enhanced the AD performance of rifamycin fermentation residue by alkaline heat pretreatment at 140 \({}^{\circ}\)C, pH 12, and a residence time of 3 h. The experimental results showed that the SCOD increased from 32.6% to 58.5%, the rifamycin removal efficiency increased from 34.2% to 59.2%, and the cumulative methane production increased by 86.4%, reaching 444 mL/g-VS after the alkaline heat treatment. This indicated that the alkaline heat treatment increased the organic matter solubility, significantly improved the removal efficiency of antibiotics, and markedly promoted the AD performance. Notably, when the concentration of ammonia exceeds 1670 mg/L, it inhibits the AD process of methanogenic bacteria [132]. In [PERSON]'s experiment, ammonia nitrogen concentrations peaked at 600-1100 mg/L by day 10 before stabilizing at 550-800 mg/L, remaining below inhibitory thresholds for methanogens. This indicates effective mitigation of ammonia-induced microbial inhibition. Furthermore, increased microbial diversity post-pretreatment enhanced the digestion efficiency and system resilience to environmental stressors, like antibiotics. HT similarly enhances AMR digestion efficiency, particularly in boosting methane and biogas production. Under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions, organic particulates undergo hydrolytic chain scission, generating soluble low-molecular-weight compounds that promote the enrichment of carbon and nitrogen in the liquid phase [133; 134].