The cell membranes of microbes in waste activated sludge (WAS) are extremely resilient. This severely limits the performance of anaerobic digesters. Until MicroSludge, no technology has been able to economically and efficiently destroy the membranes of these microbes. The scanning electron microscope images below show WAS before and after MicroSludge.

The image above shows intact bacterial microbes magnified 20,000 times. The image below shows the same microbes following the MicroSludge process.

The cell membranes have been destroyed and the liquid cellular contents have been released for digestion. This supercharges digester performance. With conventional methods, typically only 20% of the WAS is converted to biogas in a digester, but with MicroSludge, approximately 95% is converted into biogas.