An expert system for waste management

Management of hazardous waste is an increasing problem for both the companies that generate the waste and for the communities that eventually experience the consequences of the management decisions. Thus, both social and political aspects must be considered when solving these problems. It is thus important that waste management technologies are evaluated by a panel of experts with various backgrounds. The methodology for developing an expert system for waste treatment technology evaluation was discussed. An expert system was developed to select the ''best'' waste treatment alternatives. This expert system includes two different knowledge bases: one for the economic and technical parts of the problem and another for the social and political aspects. This expert system was developed on an IBM personal computer using Turbo Prolog(TM). The pulp and paper industry was selected as an example problem for developing this expert system, which system was tested using two example waste streams from the pulp and paper industry. The results agree with the current treatment facilities the companies are using. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited