The invention relates to paper making industry clean production, in particular to an alkali recovery method based on paper making black liquid. The method comprises the following steps of: 1) adding carbon powder in paper making black liquid, introducing CO2 gas for carrying out primary hydrothermal carbonization, and carrying out filtering to obtain primary hydrothermal carbonization liquid and primary hydrothermal carbonization materials; 2) adding crude activated carbon into the primary hydrothermal carbonization liquid obtained in the first step, carrying out secondary hydrothermal carbonization under the CO2 gas introduction condition, carrying out filtering to obtain secondary hydrothermal carbonization liquid and secondary hydrothermal carbonization materials, evaporating the secondary hydrothermal carbonization liquid, regulating the pH (Potential Of Hydrogen), and carrying out causticization treatment to obtain alkali liquid. The method provided by the invention has the advantages that because the alkali recovery work procedure is a bottle neck of most alkali process pulp making paper making plants in prior art, after the efficiency of the process is improved, the pulp making capability of the paper making plants can be greatly improved, meanwhile, the by-production of high-added-value activated carbon and white carbon black can be realized, and further, the scale benefits of the paper making enterprises can be integrally improved.