New body 'liquefaction' unit unveiled in Florida funeral home

With the new semester starting the blog has been kind of, uh, dead lately, sorry. But here's something from the ever-alert BBC:

Full story at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14114555

New body 'liquefaction' unit unveiled in Florida funeral home
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News




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Resomation founder Sandy Sullivan explains how the machine works

A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial "alkaline hydrolysis" unit at a Florida funeral home.

The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.

The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.

The makers claim the process produces a third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses a seventh of the energy, and allows for the complete separation of dental amalgam for safe disposal...