A Comparative Analysis of Cremation and Alkaline Hydrolysis Methods

This report provides a detailed comparison between traditional cremation and alkaline hydrolysis, often referred to as green cremation, as methods of human body disposition. It begins with an introduction to alkaline hydrolysis, a process that uses water and alkali to dissolve the body, leaving behind bone fragments and a sterile liquid. The report highlights the differences and similarities between the two processes, including the use of heat and pressure in alkaline hydrolysis and the role of natural processes. It delves into the process, explaining how a body is placed in a pressurized chamber with water and alkali, and the subsequent decomposition. The report then compares the environmental safety and cleanliness of both methods, with alkaline hydrolysis showing a reduced carbon footprint. Cost comparisons are also made, with alkaline hydrolysis often being more affordable. The report concludes by summarizing the key aspects of both methods and their implications.

RUNNING HEAD: CREMATION AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS 1
CREMATION AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS
Student Name
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CREMATION AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS 2
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Difference & Similarity.........................................................................................................................3
Process...................................................................................................................................................4
Which one is safer and cleaner for the environment?............................................................................5
Cost.......................................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
Reference...............................................................................................................................................7

CREMATION AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS 3
Introduction
The report will discuss in detail about the process of Alkaline Hydrolysis which is also called
as Green Cremation. It is basically a process of preparing a dead human body for its
disposition and the process is like the process of cremation and it’s a process which decrease
human remains to varied bone fragments (Olson 666-693). However, despite the flame and
the process of Alkaline Hydrolysis utilised water along with alkali answers of potassium
hydroxide normally found in products of household that when get heated and dissolves the
body. This process left the bone fragment behind which becomes a sterile based liquid. It is a
part of natural process and the body further undergoes right after burial that can take time of
twenty-five years. The process of green cremation significantly can increase the natural
process to two to three hours in a completely quite as well as controlled environment.
Difference & Similarity
First in the process, bodies are weighed to decide the accuracy and how much sodium
hydroxide and is required for the process of alkaline hydrolysis. When the temperature is
raised and the overall pressure in the tank along with the body will naturally hydrolysed as
well as decompose in quick manner. This is the similar process that environment performs in
the ground and further supported by the bacteria in the soil as well as alkalinity of the soil.
The energy used as a part of crematory as much energy as well as the resources with high
pressure along with temperature which is part of alkaline hydrolysis tools however one must
give up the speed (Olson. 666-693). It was also predicted that alkaline hydrolysis can be
replaced with cremation in almost twenty years. The system is simple and has a reduced
environment influences that improve the present municipal waste based treatment structure. It
was also advised at the time of installation of the alkaline hydrolysis structure. The increased
sludge where the municipality that must pay other to completely clear out had completely

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disappeared. In the current time, it is already provided as the flame based cremation and with
high energy and efficient based retort which can cost up to eighty thousand dollars in
comparison to one lakh fifty thousand dollar based cost of this process units. The process of
flame based cremation which is highly faster procedure and there are retorts that can be
handled eight to twelve bodies in twenty-four-hour period (Ferreira, Rafaela, 95). But, there
are natural gas retorts creates an average of five hundred pounds of CO2 along with
greenhouse gas emission per body.
The process of alkaline hydrolysis is the more natural way to separate the water and to blend
from the body. When people think about breaking it down with items for the most part since
it is a thought where water can take a lot of time for the process. This is not very fast process
as fire.
Process
The dead body is when placed in a pressurized with stainless steel chamber when water as
well as alkali are added along with the temperature is raised up to three hundred and fifty
degrees. There is water, alkali, pressure and heat which goes around the body to cause a kind
of reaction that can fasten the process of decomposition of soft amount tissues. The
concluding sterile answers which is completely drained from the chamber which is
pressurized and it completely leave behind the soft bone based fragments (Lasnoski. 233-
242). The solution of sterile which can be recycled via the current waste water treatment tools
and the process normally take a lot of time and it is same to cremation.
The process of green option to cremation based green cremation is very eco-friendly by
nature than flame based process of cremation. When compared with the process of alkaline
hydrolysis, it provides the following: -
1. It covers more than seventy five percent reduction of basic carbon footprints.

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2. There are pacemakers along with other medical tools that do not require to be
eliminated before to the procedure as with flame based process of cremation (Rumble
243-260).
Which one is safer and cleaner for the environment?

CREMATION AND ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS 6
Cost
The process of green cremation is approximately twenty-three hundred dollars which is three
times lowest the direct process of cremation price in most of the metro areas however, it is
less expensive than funeral homes based charge. As per the facts, one small town funeral
home in southern part of Minnesota charged around four-thousand dollars in case of direct
cremation which makes it one of the highest prices in the states (Canning et al. 228). The
research also predicts that the price will decrease as other funeral homes are now offering the
Alkaline Hydrolysis process. But the high amount of cost of a tool called Resomator which is
a stainless steel based pressurized chamber is used for this process which means it is rare that
many funeral process at home will add this alternation to the normal price lists.
Conclusion
The report discussed in detail about the process of Alkaline Hydrolysis which can be called
as a method of final disposition of body remains and is currently legal in some part of USA.
The process was also legal in the US state of New Hampshire since during initial year of
moratorium which can be imposed to permit the technology based claimed that can be
evaluated as well as validated right before the use in public (da Cruz et al. 1-14). The process
of traditional burial can impact the environment and since it is based on embalming chemical
that leach the place where a person is buried. The alkaline process is very eco-friendly in that
regard.

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Reference
Canning, Louise, Isabelle Szmigin, and Cathy Vaessen. "15 Consumer acceptance of radical
alternatives to human disposal." Death in a Consumer Culture 22 (2015): 228.
da Cruz, Nicholas Joseph Tavares, et al. "Environmental impacts caused by cemeteries and
crematoria, new funeral technologies, and preferences of the Northeastern and Southern
Brazilian population as for the funeral process." Environmental Science and Pollution
Research (2017): 1-14.
Ferreira, Ana Rafaela Ferraz. "Body disposal in Portugal: Current practices and potential
adoption of alkaline hydrolysis and natural burial as sustainable alternatives." (2016).
Lasnoski, Kent J. "Are Cremation and Alkaline Hydrolysis Morally Distinct?." The National
Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 16.2 (2016): 233-242.
Olson, P. R. "Custody of the Corpse: controlling alkaline hydrolysis in US death care
markets." Death in a Consumer Culture (2016).
Olson, Philip R. "Flush and Bone: Funeralizing Alkaline Hydrolysis in the United
States." Science, Technology, & Human Values 39.5 (2014): 666-693.
Rumble, Hannah, et al. "Disposal or dispersal? Environmentalism and final treatment of the
British dead." Mortality 19.3 (2014): 243-260.