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Anaerobic digestion in wastewater treatment plants converts its unwanted end product – waste activated sludge into biogas. Even if the process is well established, pre-treatment of the sludge can further improve its efficiency. In this study, four treatment regimes for increasing methane production through prior sludge disintegration were investigated using lab-scale cavitation generator and real sludge samples. Three different cavitating (attached cavitation regime, developed cloud shedding cavitation regime and cavitation in a wake regime) and one non-cavitating regime at elevated static pressure were studied in detail for their effectiveness on physical and chemical properties of sludge samples. Volume-weighted mean diameter D[4,3] of sludge's particles decreased by up to 92%, specific surface area increased by up to 611%, while viscosity (at a shear rate of 3.0 s−1) increased by up to 39% in the non-cavitating and decreased by up to 24% in all three cavitating regimes. Chemical changes were more pronounced in cavitating regimes, where released soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) and increase of dissolved organic matter (DOM) compounds by up to 175% and 122% were achieved, respectively. Methane production increased in all four cases, with the highest increase of 70% corresponding to 312 mL CH 4 g−1 COD. However, this treatment was not particularly efficient in terms of energy consumption. The best energy balance was found for the regime with a biochemical methane potencial increase of 43%. [Display omitted] • One cavitation device supports four different (non)cavitating regimes. • Selected regimes clarify the influence of cavitation on methane production. • Presence of cavitation induces chemical effects on WAS. • Released sCOD does not directly correlate with methane production. • Increased viscosity of WAS samples may be important for anaerobic digestion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]