Due to rapid urbanization in China, municipal solid waste generation has been increasing annually. According to statistics, the global average waste generation is approximately 0.74 kg per capita per day, with significant variations among different countries, ranging from 0.11 to 4.54 kg per capita per day (Mor and Ravindra, 2023). Globally, around 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste are generated each year, with at least 33% not being managed in an environmentally safe way (World Bank Group, 2018). In 2021, urban solid waste in China amounted to 2.49 ×108 tons (National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, 2022). Incineration has become the primary method for the harmless disposal of municipal solid waste, surpassing landfilling, and developing rapidly for power generation in Chinese urban areas. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China (2022), the proportion of waste incineration increased significantly from 3.66% in 2006 to 72.54% in 2021. In 2021, the volume of incineration disposal reached 1.80×108 tons. However, incinerating municipal solid waste can release air pollutants, including SO2, NOx, HCl, incomplete combustion pollutants, particulate matter (PM), and potentially hazardous substances such as dioxins and furan compounds. These pollutants can have severe impacts on environmental health (Chen et al., 2022).
Fly ash (FA) is produced through the incineration of municipal solid waste, which typically contains 5–10% chlorine (Cl). Elevated Cl concentrations can weaken solidification strength and increase environmental risks associated with heavy metal leaching from FA (Huang et al., 2023). In 2018, the total amount of FA generated from waste incineration exceeded 6.31×106 tons, and this number rose to over 1.00×107 tons in 2020. Safe and harmless disposal of FA has become a major challenge for the sustainable development of the waste incineration and power generation industry, emerging as an inevitable trend in the technological development of the waste incineration industry (Xie et al., 2023).
Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) is an activity that follows relevant technical standards and specifications. It uses scientifically reliable empirical test data and follows quantitative and qualitative criteria as a supplementary measure. ETV targets technologies or processes with industrial and market prospects and verifies environmental innovations (Harris et al., 2022). High-performing innovations with the potential to protect the environment often face significant market barriers due to skepticism about the data generated by businesses or companies. Therefore, it is necessary to establish market-based verification processes that overcome these barriers and ensure data accessibility, comprehensibility, and trustworthiness (Calleja and Delgado, 2008).
In the 1990s, the United States pioneered ETV. This led to the establishment and implementation of new environmental technology assessment systems in countries such as Canada, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea (Klicius and Spoerri, 1998; Molenda and Ratman-Kłosińska, 2018). As of May 2013, the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences reported the completion of 1,368 Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) projects globally (Ran et al., 2020). In February 2011, the United States, Japan, and the European Union conducted verifications for 478, 520, and 57 technologies, respectively. This represents a significant increase of 28.8%. China began focusing on ETV evaluation systems in 1999 and has since released standards to govern the assessment of new environmental technologies' effectiveness, including T/CSES 1-2015 and T/CSES 2-2015 (Chen et al., 2021). In 2019, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of China jointly issued GB/T 24034 − 2019, which defines the principles, procedures, and requirements for ETV. This standard has achieved mutual recognition with the international ETV evaluation standard ISO 14034 (ISO, 2016; Cunningham et al., 2022).
Currently, ETV evaluation systems mainly focus on water, air, soil, clean production, monitoring technology, and energy technology. However, there is a lack of comprehensive assessment systems for the resource utilization of solid waste, including FA and its by-products (detoxified FA and waste salt), after harmless treatment. Currently, there is no comprehensive system for quantifying diverse environmental assessment indicators, nor is there an established system for evaluating subsequent resource products. To address this issue, we propose an innovative framework that applies ETV to the multifactor configuration of FA harmless disposal and resource utilization technology. Furthermore, we have established a comprehensive, scientific, and feasible evaluation method. This study makes novel contributions by (1) considering all major factors that influence the environmental impact of FA harmless disposal and resource utilization technology, (2) compiling and formulating a detailed system through various methods such as on-site investigations and literature reviews, and (3) quantifying the multiple environmental impacts of multifactor configurations and determining their differences.
The research aims to advance the level of remediation technology for FA disposal and resource utilization in China. Additionally, it provides scientific information and a decision-making basis for enterprises to make rational technological choices. The study is significant in promoting high-quality development throughout the industry.