Patent ID: 8562793

Claim:
A process for reducing an organic-containing material into lower molecular weight gaseous hydrocarbons, liquid hydrocarbons and solid carbon constituents, said process comprising the steps of: feeding a sample of said organic-containing material into an infeed system, wherein said infeed system contains a non-flammable blanketing purge gas; transferring said material into at least one microwave applicator containing said purge gas in a pressurized state above local atmospheric pressure; exposing said material in said microwave applicator to at least two sources of microwaves from a bifurcated waveguide for a period of time sufficient to volumetrically reduce said material into said constituents, a frequency of said microwaves between approximately 894 MHz and approximately 1000 MHz and without an external heat source, said microwaves being in non-parallel alignment to each other, such that one waveguide entry section to each applicator entry point is parallel to the flow of the organic material while the other is perpendicular to the flow of the organic material, and further wherein an impedance mismatch of said microwaves through said bifurcated waveguides results in circular polarization; monitoring said microwaves so that any reflected microwave energy is redirected by a circulator and absorbed by a water load; collecting gaseous byproduct constituents from said volumetrically reduced sample in said microwave applicator; purging an outfeed system for said organic-containing material with said non-flammable blanketing purge gas; removing said volumetrically reduced organic-containing material from said transporting means after passage from said outfeed system; and cooling said collected gaseous byproduct constituents for a sufficient time to allow condensables in said gaseous byproduct constituents to form a liquid.