have to bring about serious environmental pollution and even
threat the food chain of animals and human beings. China has
the largest production of antibiotics in the world (e.g., in 2007,
about 210,000 ton antibiotics were produced in China
(Hvistendahl, 2012)), and each year there are millions of tons of
antibiotic residues generated (an estimated value based on an
average mass ratio of antibiotic product to residue by-product
(with typical water contents of more than 80 wt.%) of 1:60).
According to the updated environment law, antibiotic residues
are listed as one category of ‘‘hazardous wastes’’, which are prohibited
for open disposal and use as animal feedstuff, land fertilizer
and their additives. In recent years, efforts were made on treating/
disposing and utilizing bacterial and fermentative residues,
but no ideal results has been obtained. For example, activated carbon
production from bacterial residues is costly, not mentioned to
the low strength constant and specific surface area of the product;
When conducting pyrolysis of the residues, the produced carbon
residue, distilled oil, and volatile gases are very difficult to be
reused (Li et al., 2012). Until now there is not any effective methodavailable to handle the antibiotic residues, and the manufacturers
producing antibiotics are facing a urgent need of a suitable
technology.