Minister praises plan to heat swimming pool from fires of crematorium

A money-saving plan to heat a swimming pool with energy from the cremation of dead bodies has been backed by a senior Government minister.

UK Telegraph

A swimming pool in Worcestershire will be heated from a crematorium Photo: (c) Leander Baerenz

Sir George Young, leader of the House of Commons, said the proposal to warm a Worcestershire leisure centre with heat from a nearby crematorium was a “groundbreaking scheme”.

He said the Government is considering whether the plan could be duplicated elsewhere in Britain.

“The Government is aware of this particular scheme,” he said. “The Department for Energy and Climate Change will shortly be publishing its heat strategy and this will explore the potential for better recovery and reuse of wasted heat in schemes such as this one.”

He added that he would “die a happier man” if he knew heat from his cremation was warming the waters of a local pool.

Redditch Borough Council will be the first authority in the country to use a crematorium to heat a swimming pool. Work has already begun on the project, which is expected to be completed this spring. Since the plans were approved in February last year, they have won an award from the Green Organisation...[Full Article]

Burning deceased humans will produce electricity

Turbines at crematorium will convert heat into as much as 150 kilowatt-hours per corpse

MSNBC

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?...[Full Article]

Related articles...

UK Crematorium to Generate, Sell Energy Made From Dead People [Mother Jones]

A dead heat - crematorium to sell power for National Grid [UK Telegraph]