New heat source discovered in Europe

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by Zot

I am new here, and will defer to your judgment. If you don't mind a suggestion, try to google green cremation. There are numerous methods already in place for green cremation, and with slightly different preparation than we use today the combustion of a human body can be exothermic (it needs to be dehydrated a bit). Burial of human remains uses space, and resources such as steel, cement, and other non-green resources. There are several TED talks about green cremation. These seemed interesting to me, I'm guessing some are offended. I do not propose anyone be forced to cremate, but I think encouraging cremation is a good thing for the environment. I admit to having a bit of a sense of humor, which maybe wasn't appropriate to mix in with this subject, for that please accept my apology.

You don't need to apologize nor defer to anyone else's judgement. If someone doesn't like a thread you started, they have the option not to engage. If they continue to impose themselves upon you claiming whatever you have to say isn't valid, they have a problem, not you.

Now to the topic at hand. The burning of the remains or materials (however one wants to classify it) doesn't create an energy deficit in any way, there are other materials being burned at the same time. It would be one thing if the furnace was only burning remains but that isn't what you said or even implied.

To the humor part of your post, ever watch Soylent Green? While not actually funny, it sure went way out in extending the idea of being "green" in that it presented what could be called the ultimate recycling and reuse effort.

[Electrician4you]

Did you guys see Waterworld? At the scene where they recycled the bodies of the dead in that goop? Yeah eventually we will all be another recycled product like a empty beer can or glass bottle. Payment will be based on total weight.

[MJ7]

Why not just use humans as batteries/energy stores like the machines did in the Matrix?

[OpenD]

To clear up any residual question about whether or not cremation creates energy or uses energy, here's some info from two experts on the huge amount of energy expended for an actual adult cremation:

I am currently doing a Ph.D. dissertation on the amount of energy used in cremating bodies. The numbers that I have found are these:

A crematory retort must reach 1200 to 1500 degrees F. to effectively burn a body. That requires about 1.3 million BTUs and about 2400 cubic feet of gas per hour. The average cremation takes around 2 or 2.5 hours depending on the size of the body.
.....
Depending on the type of equipment you are using the average cremation will take 2-3 hours to complete. A standard machine will have 1 Afterburner and 2 cremation burners. An afterburner on a PowerPak II throws out 1,200,000 BTUs/hr and the cremation burners throw out 500,000 BTUs/hr each. Say an average sized person will take you 2 hours to complete and you use a)the afterburner and front cremation burner the entire two hours and b)the rear cremation burner for the final hour.

The total output of natural gas would equal 3,900,000 BTUs or 39,000cf of natutal (sic) gas.

Environmental Science: Cremation - energy used, plant corn, btus

Is it possible to capture some of the waste heat for other purposes using co-generation techniques? Yes, but at best the net energy cost is still quite large. And to be clear, there is no exothermic reaction involved. That's pure fantasy, like the two previous examples.

[Mack Knife]

Originally Posted by MJ7

Why not just use humans as batteries/energy stores like the machines did in the Matrix?

Could also just let the bodies decompose and capture the gases released.

There are over 100,000 (some sources cite 150,000) people that die each day. Many get buried in what amounts to a dead body landfill with others getting rolled into a ditch and covered up. Consider all the expenses in the casket and so on.

That energy donor card mentioned in an earlier post was interesting. A BTU or some other measure equivalent could be determined with variances according to weight, estimated fat content and so on and the survivors could get some form of energy credit when they deposited the remains at the collection center.

All the talk about metals going into landfills and here we are often burying people in metal caskets. Then add in all the other stuff put into some caskets.

Let the bodies dry out first, but during that process, siphon off the gases that result. You end up with maybe half the original weight as a burnable heap and into the hot box it goes.

Someone could figure out a way to dignify the process, we manage to justify all manner of killing people so it could be done.

Now consider all the cosmetic surgeries and other surgeries and just what happens to all the material? It is being disposed of somehow already so this could be an extension of that process.