Methods and apparatus for the treatment of hazardous biological waste material

摘要

The invention provides methods and apparatus for treating hazardous biological wastes. According to one exemplary method, a biological waste material is placed into a chamber and a vacuum is applied to the chamber. After the pressure within the chamber is sufficiently reduced, water vapor is introduced into the chamber and electromagnetic radiation energy is applied to produce a plasma. In one particularly preferable aspect, the chamber is allowed to reach a static condition before the water vapor is introduced. In this way, the water vapor is able to equally distribute itself throughout the volume of the chamber so that an equally distributed plasma can be produced upon application of the electromagnetic radiation energy.