[QUOTE]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.
Consequently, while burners in Europe typically run 24 hours day, ones in America operate only eight hours each day, Looker said. "A typical turbine system would cost somewhere between $250,000 to $500,000. If it's running 24 hours a day, that's a five-year payback. If it's running eight hours a day, that's a 15- or 20-year payback, which isn't feasible," he said.
However, Looker is hopeful that the situation could change in the near future. "Over the next 10 years, with the baby boomers coming through, cremation is going to reach 75 to 80 percent. Then, this might be feasible."
Furthermore, a turbine designed by a company called Thermal Dynamic Engineering, which produces just 50 kilowatt-hours of energy but is much less expensive to install than the Durham system, will be available in the near future, Looker said.
Thus, it may indeed come to pass that deceased baby boomers will someday help power your household appliances.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45526347/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/burning-deceased-humans-will-produce-electricity/?#.TtqK6XIgcph[/url]
Wasn't there somebody that posted exactly this and was nominated for dumbest poster of 2011?
I'd be happy to be done with like this.
Although, a Viking funeral would be amazing.
I'm surprised people aren't in an uproar.
[QUOTE=gbtygfvyg;33554803]I'm surprised people aren't in an uproar.[/QUOTE]
How do you know they aren't?
I hope it's not like Auschwitz and the ashes just fall amongst the countryside making it look like snow.
someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.
[QUOTE=aznz888;33554832]someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.[/QUOTE]
we burn for a while
I don't think it's like chucking loads of bodies in a furnace like it's 1943, I think they mean they're just going to use the heat from the cremation
I'll be willing to bet that there are some people inflamed over this. Of corpse, they won't be able to do anything but fill out a petition that will probably get buried in legislation
[QUOTE=aznz888;33554832]someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.[/QUOTE]
It's a crematorium, and they're not burning the bodies themselves, they're recycling the waste heat (since you know, just as you said, bodies are 70% water and that's pretty hard to burn)
I don't get what the big deal is. This doesn't mean it's ethical, let alone should be done.
maybe dried humans? like beef jerky
Fucking ninja'd.
[QUOTE=aznz888;33554832]someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.[/QUOTE]
[editline]3rd December 2011[/editline]
you sob
[QUOTE=aznz888;33554832]someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.[/QUOTE]
Fat burns incredibly well.
Alvin Huxley was [I]actually onto something[/I]
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;33554843]we burn for a while[/QUOTE]
and we're burnt at really hot temperatures
[QUOTE=DamagePoint;33554876]I don't get what the big deal is. This doesn't mean it's ethical, let alone should be done.[/QUOTE]
From a utalitarian point of view, it is more ethical than chucking them into the ground.
You're helping a large number of people by being made into electricity, your ashes could be used as fertilizer, and you're not taking up 2m^3 of soil or so (well, 2x1x1m or so...). That's the greatest good for the greatest number, thus is ethical.
Of course, it would be unethical from an autonamous point of view if it was mandatory, but it is not unethical at all if a person makes a willing, informed decision on it.
"Congrats MIPS. In order to run your PDP-11/84 with dual 9-track tape drives and RA82 hard disk drive for one day, we have to burn twenty-eight bodies to produce an equal amount of energy."
Also, doesn't incenerated zombies assist in spreading infection?
Edit:[QUOTE=Lebowski;33555183]Stop treating zombies like a real thing.
It depends on what lore you like the best.
You could say that the fire releases the demon spirit inside the zombie to be free to enter another; or the heat from the fire kills the virus; or the virus is resilient enough to be carried away by the smoke into the air; or the bad voodoo miasma of corpse smoke curses everyone so that they'll become zombies; or the etc...[/QUOTE]
You...totally didn't get the joke.
[QUOTE=JustGman;33555223]Actually, the whole "horrible zombie virus smoke cloud" thing from burning zombies came from Return of the Living Dead. That movie was also a comedy, whoever takes it seriously is a dumbfuck.[/QUOTE]
You knew where the joke came from at least.
[QUOTE=Coffee;33554943]Fat burns incredibly well.[/QUOTE]
I think I just found the solution to Americans energy crisis!
[QUOTE=Acesarge;33555063]I think I just found the solution to Americans energy crisis![/QUOTE]
What? Florida?
Oh nice now we have haunted televisions and fridges...
[QUOTE=MIPS;33555017]"Congrats MIPS. In order to run your PDP-11/84 with dual 9-track tape drives and RA82 hard disk drive for one day, we have to burn twenty-eight bodies to produce an equal amount of energy."
Also, doesn't incenerated zombies assist in spreading infection?[/QUOTE]
But all the guides tell to burn the bodies.
I actually approve of this :v:
[QUOTE=aznz888;33554832]someone explain to me how human bodies are expected to burn like tinderwood? we're 70% water, and i don't think humans are very combustible.[/QUOTE]
We're made of primarily of oxygen(65%) and carbon(18%). It doesn't take much to excite carbon and oxygen enough for them to bind and become CO[SUB]2[/SUB], which as we all know releases energy in the form of heat.
[QUOTE=MIPS;33555017]"Congrats MIPS. In order to run your PDP-11/84 with dual 9-track tape drives and RA82 hard disk drive for one day, we have to burn twenty-eight bodies to produce an equal amount of energy."
Also, doesn't incenerated zombies assist in spreading infection?[/QUOTE]
Stop treating zombies like a real thing.
It depends on what lore you like the best.
You could say that the fire releases the demon spirit inside the zombie to be free to enter another; or the heat from the fire kills the virus; or the virus is resilient enough to be carried away by the smoke into the air; or the bad voodoo miasma of corpse smoke curses everyone so that they'll become zombies; or the etc...
[QUOTE=Lebowski;33555183]Stop treating zombies like a real thing.
It depends on what lore you like the best.
You could say that the fire releases the demon spirit inside the zombie to be free to enter another; or the heat from the fire kills the virus; or the virus is resilient enough to be carried away by the smoke into the air; or the bad voodoo miasma of corpse smoke curses everyone so that they'll become zombies; or the etc...[/QUOTE]
Actually, the whole "horrible zombie virus smoke cloud" thing from burning zombies came from Return of the Living Dead. That movie was also a comedy, whoever takes it seriously is a dumbfuck.
Even in death I still serve!
...society by allowing them to use my body to generate electricity
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