Abstract: Methanol is produced from an organic waste material such as sewage by a process wherein an arc heater or "plasma jet" performs novel process steps including: (1) partially vaporizing an organic sewage sludge (a semi-liquid material produced by bacterial digestion of the sewage); (2) reacting the gas products obtained by the sludge vaporization, together with a digester gas (obtained by digestion of the sewage), to form a synthesis gas comprising principally H.sub.2, CO, CO.sub.2, H.sub.2 O and CH.sub.4, and (3) optionally, driving a water shift reaction to convert a portion of the output gases to additional H.sub.2 and CO for use as a feed stream to the jet. The synthesis gas is converted to methanol in a subsequent process step.