The invention described herein generally pertains to a process for reducing an organic-containing material into lower molecular weight gaseous hydrocarbons,
liquid hydrocarbons and
solid carbon constituents, said process including the steps of: feeding a sample of said organic-containing material into an infeed
system, wherein the infeed
system contains a non-flammable blanketing purge gas; transferring the material into at least one
microwave applicator containing the purge gas in a pressurized state above local
atmospheric pressure to insure that no air migrates into said
microwave applicator which might cause a fire or
explosion hazard; exposing the material in said
microwave applicator to at least two sources of microwaves from at least a pair of divaricated
waveguide assemblies 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, the microwaves entering the at least one applicator out-of-phase to each other by using unequal lengths of
waveguide between the microwave generator and the at least one applicator; the microwaves entering the at least one applicator through at least one applicator diffuser matrix for each divaricated
waveguide, which includes at least four essentially parallel beveled entry channels (preferably six slotted, beveled entry channels per applicator diffuser); and collecting byproduct constituents.