Patent ID: 7507341

Claim:
A method of converting municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes into a gas product, the method comprising: transmitting municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes to a pulsed electric field station; applying a pulsed electric field with a nonarcing voltage and pulse width to the municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes within a treatment zone in the pulsed electric field station to generate treated municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes, the pulsed electric field having pulses with a pulse width of 2 to 8 microseconds, a peak field strength of 20 to 60 kV/cm and a frequency of 2000 to 10000 pps; transmitting the treated municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes to a digester; processing the treated municipal waste-water sludge, animal wastes or plant wastes in the digester to produce a gas product.