Alkaline hydrolysis is eco-friendly way to dispose of the dead but it means turning them into GOO

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Alkaline hydrolysis is eco-friendly way to dispose of the dead but it means turning them into GOO

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Friday, October 3, 2014 Label:

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Dissolving dead bodies to create a brown, foul-smelling syrup may sound gruesome, but that's exactly what some people are hoping to happen to them once they pass away.

The process is called alkaline hydrolysis and was developed more than two decades ago to get rid of animal carcasses. It's a more efficient and environmentally-friendly, according to scientists.

Alkaline hydrolysis uses lye, 300°C heat and huge amounts of pressure to destroy bodies in big stainless-steel cylinders that look similar to pressure cookers.

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The process involves submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide, which is then pressurised and heated for two-and-a-half to three hours. Pictured a machine in which the body is dissolved

Caitlin Doughty, a mortician from Los Angeles, has used her latest YouTube blog to explain the process with the help of a disco ball Absolut Vodka bottle and a silk purse.

'The dead body is put in a silk bag' explains the 30-year-old. 'That silk bag is putting into a metal tube that looks like the cryogenic tank they put Mel Gibson in, in Forever Young.'

The process involves submerging the body in a solution of water and potassium hydroxide, which is then pressurised and heated for two-and-a-half to three hours.

This leaves a green-brown tinted liquid containing amino acids, peptides, sugars and salts and soft, porous white bone remains which are easily crushed.

FUNERAL DIRECTORS FACE CONTROVERSY OVER LIQUID CREMATIONS

In 2011, America's first funeral home which cremates bodies by liquefying them has been ordered to stop the controversial practice.

Officials at Ohio Department of Health say the procedure called alkaline hydrolysis using lye and heat is not approved under state law.

Jeff Edwards, owner of the funeral business Columbus, had used the method on 19 bodies before he was told to stop the practice.

The health department ordered officials not to issue permits or accept death certificates when bodies are to be disposed of by alkaline hydrolysis.

But Mr Edwards said: 'There's no law that says you can't do this.'

According to James Olson, chairman of the National Funeral Directors Association's green burial work group, the procedure merely speeds up the body's natural decomposition process into a matter of hours.

He said at the time: 'I think burning a body at 2,000 degrees has more of a "yuck factor" to it than putting it into a solution where it's just naturally going to break down.'

Because of its environmental advantages, some in the funeral industry say it could someday rival burial and cremation.

It also eliminates concerns about crematorium emissions, including carbon dioxide, which can be released into the air as part of the process.

But getting the public to accept the process is challenge. The process enables a portion of the human remains to be flushed down a drain, and some have branded this 'undignified.'

'I'm guessing that the people who say that, don't know that in the embalming process, for a traditional funeral, the blood drained out of the body goes right down the drain,' said Ms Doughty.

As well as the liquid, the process leaves a dry residue similar in appearance to cremated remains. It could be returned to the family in an urn or buried in a cemetery.

Caitlin Doughty, a mortician from Los Angeles, has used her latest YouTube blog to explain the process with the help of a disco ball Absolut Vodka bottle and a silk purse

Ask a Mortician- Liquefying Bodies - YouTube

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