Fly Ash Harmless Disposal and Resource Utilization Technology Evaluation Method Research – a Case Study of an Innovative Fly Ash Treatment Technology

The rapid urbanization in China has led to a significant increase in the generation of fly ash from municipal solid waste incineration. This has made the safe and harmless disposal of fly ash a major challenge for the waste-to-energy industry's sustainable development. The current environmental verification system lacks a complete quantitative system that integrates various evaluation indicators for solid waste resource recovery technology. Thus, there is an urgent need to expedite research on environmental technology verification (ETV) and establish an objective, fair, and scientific system for verifying and evaluating fly ash harmless disposal and resource utilization technology. In this study, an evaluation system was constructed consisting of 12 indexes from three aspects: technical characteristics, technical quality, and technical value, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The evaluation results were classified into three levels: recommended, suggested for improvement and optimization, and not recommended. Consequently, a comprehensive ETV system was developed. The case analysis confirmed the scientific validity and feasibility of the constructed verification system. It demonstrated that the developed verification evaluation method for the harmless disposal and resource utilization technology of fly ash can objectively and effectively evaluate the progress and applicability of the technology. Additionally, valuable suggestions for improving the technical performance were provided. Furthermore, this study provided a scientific and reliable evaluation system for fly ash harmless disposal and resource utilization technology, which is also adapted for solid waste treatment technology because of non-specific methods and concepts, and laid technical guidance for the government in studying and issuing related regulations.