# Treatment Methods for Antibiotic Mycelial Residues: A Review
## 3 Treatment Methods for AMR
### Thermochemical Methods
#### 3.3.2 Pyrolysis Gasification  
Pyrolysis, also termed destructive distillation, refers to the thermochemical decomposition of organic materials under high-temperature, oxygen-free conditions (typically >300 \({}^{\circ}\)C), resulting in irreversible changes to their chemical composition and physical state [99]. As an emerging thermochemical conversion technology, pyrolysis could generate a range of products applicable to renewable energy and other sectors, such as bio-oil, biochar, and syngas [99; 100]. Currently, pyrolysis and gasification technologies have been deployed for treating biomass wastes, including municipal sludge, urban solid waste, and crop straws, demonstrating notable environmental-energy synergies [101; 102; 103; 104].  
[PERSON] et al. [25] performed a life cycle assessment and safety analysis of four AMR treatment strategies: incineration, pyrolysis/gasification, AD coupled with landfilling, and AD coupled with incineration. Their findings identified pyrolysis/gasification as the optimal approach for AMR treatment, exhibiting the lowest environmental impact and highest resource recovery efficiency. Adopting this technology to treat AMR can not only effectively eliminate persistent organic pollutants, such as antibiotics, but also yields high-value products, thereby alleviating environmental burdens and enabling energy-efficient vaporization of solid waste [105; 106; 107].  
Specifically, the solid-phase product of AMR pyrolysis is biochar; the liquid phase comprises aqueous and bio-oil fractions, while the gaseous phase consists predominantly of CO\({}_{2}\), CO, H\({}_{2}\), CH\({}_{4}\), and C\({}_{2}\)-C\({}_{5}\) hydrocarbons [108; 109; 110]. AMR-derived biochar exhibits exceptional performance in environmental and energy applications, demonstrating high adsorption efficiency for aqueous antibiotics, recyclability, and superior stability, thus showcasing significant practical potential [105; 106; 110]. Liquid-phase products are dominated by oxygenated compounds, nitrogen-containing species, and hydrocarbons, with abundant nitrogen content but negligible phosphorus [108; 111; 112]. The composition of gaseous products varies systematically with pyrolysis temperature: CO\({}_{2}\) predominates at lower temperatures, while H\({}_{2}\) and CH\({}_{4}\) concentrations increase steadily with rising temperatures, accompanied by a marked decline in CO\({}_{2}\) levels. This phenomenon likely arises from secondary cracking reactions of primary volatiles under high-temperature conditions [107; 109].  
However, practical implementation requires pretreatment steps, such as dehydration, drying, and pulverization, of raw AMR prior to pyrolysis, introducing challenges analogous to incineration--notably high dehydration costs and wastewater treatment expenses (including pyrolysis liquid byproducts) [31; 108; 109]. Furthermore, secondary pollution during pyrolysis gas incineration needs to be stringently controlled due to the presence of sulfur and nitrogen [108; 109].  
Pyrolysis gasification technology demonstrates robust antibiotic removal efficiency, achieving waste reduction, detoxification, and resource recovery. However, even though pyrolysis has more resource products to compensate for the cost consumption compared with incineration, the operating cost is still high, and there are fewer reports on the application of the pyrolysis treatment of pristine AMR in practical engineering. Future progress hinges on enhancing feedstock adaptability, developing modular reactors, and advancing high-value product utilization technologies for large-scale AMR management.