2010-06-28
Green for eternity start-up companies introduce two routes to stay environmentally friendly after you're dead and gone
Publication
Publication
Start-up companies have introduced two environmentally friendly alternative technologies to standard western practice of disposal of dead bodies in a bid to regulate mercury emissions. The Resomation process of Sullivan includes placing the body in a steel chamber along with potassium hydroxide at high pressure and temperature, and breaking down a corpse using alkaline hydrolysis instead of extremely high heat. This method has a much lower carbon footprint than cremation as the tissue is not burned and the process also uses an eighth of the energy required for cremation. Wiigh-Masak has developed a technology called Promession, which creates the conditions that allow a corpse to compost to soil instead of rotting. Promession is a vacuum process removes formaldehyde from corpses, which is then buried in a shallow topsoil grave, where more oxygen can access the remains. Wiigh-Masak has received regulatory approval to clinical tests of the process in Sweden and Germany, with humans volunteering for the procedure.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/cen-v088n026.p041 | |
Everts, S. (2010). Green for eternity start-up companies introduce two routes to stay environmentally friendly after you're dead and gone. doi:10.1021/cen-v088n026.p041
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