MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) or other waste material is fed into a vertical shaft reactor by means of air-tight in-feed system, passing on its way down through four zones:

1    The freshly introduced waste is initially dried and pre-heated to approximately 300 °C.
 
2    Passing down to a higher temperature zone, about 400 to 700 °C, Pyrolysis takes place, producing pyrolytic gas and tars from the putrescible fraction of organics in the waste.

3    Descending further down, the now remaining carbonaceous residues of Pyrolysis, char and the inorganics of the waste, reach the higher temperature zone, 800 to 1300 °C, in which the supply of sub-stoichiometric amount of oxygen by means of hot steam, supports gasification and produce CO and H2. These high calorific value gases rise and mix with the pyrolytic gas, in the previous zone and exit the reactor in the form of "Product Gas" a fuel gas.

4    All the organic components of the waste, now transformed into gas and removed, leave behind only the inorganics which encounter the highest temperature of the Plasma Jets, are melted and vitrified, and in the molten state tapped out of the reactor’s lower part, the melting chamber. In case of MSW, this pouring of the liquid melt is usually effected directly into a water bath, where it instantaneously solidifies and breaks up into gravel like aggregate to be used in the construction industry applications.