I was recently listening to NPR and they had a piece about "green funerals" where the graveyard is not covered with giant headstones and all that. This got me started thinking about how I'd like to go, so here it is.

I'd like to be cremated on a funeral pyre, placed under a boiler/steam or sterling engine, and have the engine hooked up to a dynamo (possibly peltiers if they're more efficient). Loved ones and family members would be reruited to start up the fly wheel on the engine so they contribute to the energy, then they could know that some of their energy is stored with mine forever. The electricity generated from the pyre and my burning remains would then be stored in a super capacitor or long life battery to be stored with my ashes. If a suitable use for the electricity could be conceived, it could be specified in my will.

Something like "Shock [X] once a year on the anniversary of my death, he knows why", or "trickle my final energy into a defibrillator so that my last energy may save a life" if you want something a little more profound. Suggestions are welcome.
-- bleh, Dec 18 2007

Would probably have to run through this first. Pre-cremation_20vacuum_20dessicator
To get rid of all the water. [bleh, Dec 18 2007]

Soylent Green .... http://en.wikipedia.../wiki/Soylent_Green
... is people ..... [8th of 7, Dec 18 2007]

Ahuman body contains.... http://answers.yaho...071115102845AA74b6D
47500 Kcal [bleh, Dec 18 2007]

A shocking idea. [+]
-- 8th of 7, Dec 18 2007


how much energy do you have to put into a body before it begins to release energy by itself?

You risk blending your added energy to your own energy and diluting the emotional value of product.

Instead of burning anything, what about just dumping a bucket of bacteria and some oxygen into the grave? While the body decomposes, the heat can be collected and turned into electricity by a stirling engine, and the gas generated from the expanding body can power a small pump. Although, like with electricty, the addition of a bottle of oxygen would cause energy blending again.

But I'm not actually sure the heat of decomposition comes from the body so this may be a bad idea.. it might just be all the bacterias and bugs working up a sweat.
-- mylodon, Dec 18 2007


Just a moment, what about all that protein and fat ? Carnivores survive by metabolising meat, therefore there's got to be quite a bit of energy tied up in a body that can be recovered, maybe by fermentation (a la Soylent Green) or some other mechanism. After all, bacteria live by decomposing dead tissue, using it as their energy source. So the breakdown process has to be exothermic.

The problem is converting the energy locked up in the chemicals into electricity; some sort of fuel cell ?

Ome could chop up the body and feed it to electric eels.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 18 2007


<linky> A human body contains about 188 369 BTU. And I discovered that google does know the capitalization rule for calories.
-- bleh, Dec 18 2007



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