The invention provides an apparatus for processing material such as organically coated waste and organic materials including biomass, industrial waste, municipal solid waste and sludge, comprising a processing chamber (2) for processing said material at an elevated temperature to produce syngas and a combustion chamber (4) having at least one burner therein for combusting syngas released by processing of said material. A conduit means (18) is provided between said combustion chamber and said processing chamber for carrying hot exhaust gasses from the combustion chamber (4) to said processing chamber (2) and at last one mirror (24) is arranged to reflect and concentrate sunlight thereby to cause the temperature within said processing chamber (2) to be raised. The apparatus also includes a syngas reservoir (66). A storage conduit (62) is provided for carrying syngas into said syngas reservoir (66) and a syngas feed line (68) is provided for feeding syngas from said reservoir to said combustion chamber (4).