the intelligent woman's guide to cremation

resomation

Amy Meet Amy. In a few hours Amy will be coffee-colored liquid with the consistency of motor oil and a strong ammonia smell. She will then be poured down the drain.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Amy is 34 and works at an investment bank. She is a keen environmentalist. Amy bikes to work, does not eat meat and recycles. The environment is such a big part of Amy’s life, she’s not only interested in living green. She wants to die green.

This is how Amy's final day will go.

There is no service, no viewing of Amy, she is taken to a resomation facility on an industrial estate.

Amy's naked body is placed in a porous metal basket that will allow fluid to exchange throughout her resomation cycle.

Resomation Basket The basket is slid on teflon rails into the resomator. In concept, the resomator is a mechanical stomach where Amy will be digested into soft, soapy and wet bone remains and liquefied tissues.

The integral load cells weigh Amy, and the appropriate amount of water and alkali are added automatically to the vessel. 500 litres of water mixed with potassium hydroxide (a strong alkali pH 14) in a 1:21 ratio are used to dissolve Amy away. Gas-powered steam generators build up pressure within the vessel as the temperature rises up to around 170 degrees Celsius. Amy is not boiled because the pressure in the vessel is sufficiently high that the water does not boil.

Resomator

Resomator All Amy's tissue, muscle, hair and nails dissolve. A re-circulation pump creates a whirlpool effect that helps Amy to dissolve. The alkali digests Amy by the forced insertion of water molecules into her proteins, fats, carbohydrates and genetic material. In this way it dissolves her tissues. Amy's DNA is totally broken down to its constituent compounds, and her proteins to amino acids and a few very small peptides. The fat in her body is decomposed to fatt acids.

Fat hydrolysis

The whole process is like a (very) hot bath in which the alkali eats away at Amy. It takes about 30 minutes to dissolve Amy's tissues once the alkali gets going, and the time for the whole process is about an hour.

Resomation Touch Screen Amy's resomation is controlled by a Siemens touch-screen and PLC. (Programmable Logic Controller - a device used to automate monitoring and control of industrial equipment). The PLC collects all the data about Amy's dissolution and allows downloading of this information to a remote PC. The unit also allows any faults to be diagnosed via the Internet.

After an hour of the resomation experience Amy has disappeared totally. Calcium phosphate outlines of her bones remain. The calcium phosphate is very soft and can be crushed in the hand. This wet, soft and soapy bone residue must be dried (under a heat lamp overnight) before it can be pulverized. The calcium phosphate is great fertilizer, and gets spread over rose bushes.

Amy's filling can be clearly seen and picked out. If Amy had any metal implants these would be in excellent condition and could be removed and recycled.

Also remaining are many litres of a liquid containing building blocks Amy was made from: amino acids, peptides, sugar and mild soap. The liquefied tissue and chemicals are pre treated with additional chemicals to balance the PH before it is flushed out of the resomation unit into the local sewer system.

Bone Shadow

Amy has been reduced to liquid spread throughout the sewer system, and to calcium phosphate that has been spread over the ground and washed away by rain. It was like she never existed. There is no physical record of her left.

Amy

advantages of resomation

Remains Resomation has all the advantages of cremation:

Quick. Amy will have dissolved away in an hour.

Complete. Amy will have gone completely by the end of the process.

Clean. Amy won't rot and putrefy.

Resomation also has advantages over cremation:

Mercury fillings are not evaporated to pollute the atmosphere, but can be picked out at the end of the process.

Coffins are not burnt - reducing global warming.

Pacemakers do not need to be removed prior to resomation.

Jewelry is not destroyed and some can be recovered after resomation. Any drugs in the body are destroyed in the resomation process.

Resomation will consume around 90 kWh of energy, while a cremation will consume 250 kWh. According to resomation equipment suppliers, the total carbon footprint of a resomation is 18 times less than that of a cremation.

aka

Resomation is otherwise known as "Alkaline Hydrolysis". Not quite such a catchy name?

alkaline hydrolysis the slow way

One of Amy's other disposal options for herself is green burial. If Amy were shallow buried in the earth in neutral or slightly alkaline soil, to a great extent she would be decomposed by alkaline hydrolysis, expedited by soil bacteria. It is a very slow process in nature.

Why wait and take up land while you are waiting? There are already far too many people for the Earth to be reasonably sustained, those living will need the space used in cemeteries either just for living or to produce food. Amy is doing the right thing.

amy is already doing alkaline hydrolysis

Alkaline hydrolysis is a process that happens in Amy's small intestine where the food she has consumed is digested. In Amy's gut water molecules are forced between the chemical bonds holding molecules such as fats and proteins together. With the benefit of gut enzymes it is a moderately fast process for small amounts food.

The resomator is a stomach just like Amy's. But of course as a vegetarian Amy doesn't eat meat. The resomator's diet is rich in meat, and Amy is the latest piece.

resomation fashion

Only certain clothing fibres will dissolve during resomation, though. Cotton will not dissolve, silk and wool will. If you had on an outfit that was half wool and half cotton, the resomation technician will see cotton fibres left in the basket with the bone shadows after you have gone.

So it looks like you can where your silk undies, wooly tights and woolen dress since these will dissolve away with you. But you cannot where that cotton blouse, and you wouldn't dream of nylon tights would you?

coffin

Perhaps you want to be taken to the resomator in a more conventional coffin. You can be placed in the stainless steel basket which is now lined with silk. The silk is sealed to form a silk bag around you. The stainless steel basket is placed in a wooden "coffin".

The the basket containing your body in the silk bag is slid out on teflon rails into the resomator. The "coffin" can be re-used.

What do the papers say

So how does the man or the street or the woman in park view resomation? Not very well if these letters to a national newspaper are to be believed, although they appear to spring from misunderstanding of the process.

"This may be better for the environment, but personally it turns my stomach to think of being boiled. My dad wants to be cremated, and I want to be buried, let's stick with the traditional ways please." Raven.

Misunderstanding: No boiling takes place the pressure in the vessel is too high.

"I'm not opposed to this idea. What nobody has mentioned though is what happens to all the water that has all the boiled down meaty bits in it. Also, this year it's not a matter of importance but what happens when we have water shortages?" Margaret.

Misunderstanding: No meaty bits since all tissue will be reduced to its basic organic molecules.

At least the water used in resomation will be recycled unlike the natural gas used in cremation. Perhaps resomation will take a little time to be accepted, as was the case with cremation.

cracking good method of disposal grommet!

Amy's other disposal option is a form of freeze drying.

Coffin going into liquid nitrogen Amy would be frozen down to -18 C. Her coffin would then be lowered into liquid nitrogen. At this point she becomes very firm and brittle. Amy's coffin is exposed to light vibration. She shatters into dust.

Mercury and other metals are separated from what remains of Amy by a magnetic field. The 25 Kg of power is put into a potato starch box. The box is buried in a shallow grave and Amy's remains turn to compost in 6-12 months. A tree is planted above the grave and it absorbs the nutrients Amy provides.