42645 2017 eng Article ID 3567865-1 13 2017 article Hindawi London 0 -- -- -- Decision makers for waste management are confronted with the problem of selecting the most economic, environmental, and socially acceptable waste treatment process. This paper elucidates evaluation methods for waste treatment processes for the comparison of ecological and economic aspects such as material flow analysis, statistical entropy analysis, energetic and exergetic assessment, cumulative energy demand, and life cycle assessment.The work is based on the VDI guideline 3925. A comparison of two thermal waste treatment plants with different process designs and energy recovery systems was performed with the described evaluation methods. The results are mainly influenced by the type of energy recovery, where the waste-to-energy plant providing district heat and process steam emerged to be beneficial in most aspects. Material recovery options from waste incineration were evaluated according to sustainability targets, such as saving of resources and environmental protection. Journal of Engineering 10.1155/2017/3567865 https://www.hindawi.com/journals/je/2017/3567865/ 2314-4912 urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-426455 Creative Commons - Namensnennung 3.0 H.-J. Gehrmann M. Hiebel Franz-Georg Simon eng uncontrolled Material flow analysis eng uncontrolled Life cycle assessment eng uncontrolled Cumulative energy demand eng uncontrolled Cost benefit analysis eng uncontrolled Eco-efficiency analysis Sanitär- und Kommunaltechnik; Umwelttechnik Verlagsliteratur Datei für die Öffentlichkeit verfügbar ("Open Access") Wissenschaftliche Artikel der BAM Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM) https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/files/42645/gehrmann_et_al_JoE_2017.pdf