The characteristics and sources of coal tar residue are introduced,and the corresponding disposal technologies are reviewed.Existing disposal technologies can be divided into two types:overall disposal and separate disposal,which mainly rely on combustion or pyrolysis to detoxify organic matter,and lack of harmless treatment for inorganic matter.It is proposed that a reasonable coal tar residue disposal technology shall be clean,economic and easy to implement.High temperature gasification is suggested to be the preferred research direction.