Turbines at crematorium will convert heat into as much as 150 kilowatt-hours per corpse
Filed Under: Green Technology on December 15, 2011
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 chiefexecutive officer of the Florida-based company B&L Cremation Systems, which is unaffiliated with the Durham enterprise.
