Posted on 12/02/2011 6:27:07 PM PST by Panzerlied
In Durham, England, corpses will soon be used to generate electricity.
A crematorium is installing turbines in its burners that will convert waste heat from the combustion of each corpse into as much as 150 kilowatt-hours of juice — enough to power 1,500 televisions for an hour. The facility plans to sell the electricity to local power companies.
Some might find this concept creepy. Others might be pleased to learn that the process "makes cremation much greener by utilizing its by-products," in the words of cremation engineer Steve Looker, owner and chief executive officer of the Florida-based company B&L Cremation Systems, which is unaffiliated with the Durham enterprise.
In Europe, tightening regulations on crematorium emissions, coupled with the high price of energy, will lead more and more facilities to go the way of Durham in the future, Looker said. Will crematories in the United States follow suit?
According to Looker, whose company is currently testing different methods of utilizing cremation waste heat, the expensive turbine systems being installed in Durham are not yet economically viable for crematories here. "In the U.S., most crematories don't have enough throughput," he told Life's Little Mysteries. "Cremation in some parts of Europe is over 90 percent, but it is not over 50 percent yet here." That is, less than half of Americans opt for cremation. Most are buried.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Yet another fossil fuel?
“Bring out yer dead...’clong’...Bring out yer dead...”
Next step: Soylent Green.
The logical outgrowth of state-run medical care. After all, what are the common people good for? Good thing we don't have that kind of system. Oh, wait. . .
“I think I’ll go for a walk”
Personally I find burial creepy, not cremation.
Cheers!
'hack
SOYLENTpowerGREENenergy Co. Inc.
1500 poltergeists per man/woman hour.
Should that not read 150 Kill-o-watts?
stupid idea.
Humans are over 90% water. water is not a good fuel. It will take more energy to burn a corpse than you get out of it.
Or 1.21 Gigawatts?
Us humans are full of carbon!
I can see a business plan of a chain of heated swimming pools close to these crematoriums.
Solyandra Green.
“Personally I find burial creepy, not cremation.”
Also a total waste of valuable real estate!!!
LOL! Yeah, but this one is bancruptcy proof as long as government health care is humming along to provide a fuel source.
did you hear the one about the fellow who was so unlucky, that when he decided to become a funeral director everybody stopped dying?
The obese will finally have more energy than the thin.
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