Disclosed is a system for producing edible residues or dried distillers grains and solubles (DDGS) from ethanol production from cellulose residue using irradiation to reduce antibiotic levels in the residues. The system comprises one or more operating units for receiving and physically treating a feedstock, wherein at least one of the one or more operating units is a recalcitrance reducing operating unit for irradiating the feedstock to reduce recalcitrance； one or more cooking devices for processing the feedstock prior to fermentation； a bio-processing unit for fermentation utilizing one or more antibiotics； an evaporator/dryer operating unit； and an irradiating unit. The feedstock is lignocellulosic or cellulosic crop residue. The one or more operating units for physically treating a feedstock is for sonication, oxidation, pyrolysis, or steam explosion of the feedstock. The system further includes a liquefaction unit, a cooling unit for cooling the processed feedstock prior to fermentation, a holding tank for holding a crude ethanol mixture produced from fermentation. The system also further includes a stripping column for stripping water or other non-ethanol components from the crude ethanol mixture, a distillation unit for distilling ethanol, a molecular sieve for drying ethanol and a centrifuge to produce a liquid fraction and a solid fraction. The irradiating unit delivers electron beam irradiation or gamma radiation to inactivate or destroy the one or more antibiotics.
