The anaerobic digestion of streptomycin bacterial residues, solutions with hazardous waste treatments and bioenergy recovery, was tested in laboratory-scale digesters at 35 degrees C at various organic loading rates (OLRs). The methane production and biomass digestion were efficient at OLRs below 2.33 gVS L-1 d(-1) but were deteriorated as OLR increased because of the increased total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) concentration from cell protein decay. The thermal-alkaline pretreatment with 0.10 Na0H/TS at 70 degrees C for 2 h significantly improved the digestion performance. With the thermal-alkaline pretreatment, the volumetric reactor productivity and specific methane yield of the pretreated streptomycin bacterial residue increased by 22.08-27.08% compared with those of the unpretreated streptomycin bacterial residue at an OLR of 2.33 gVS L-1 d(-1). The volatile solid removal was 64.09%, with less accumulation of TAN and total volatile fatty acid. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.