Since the inception of this planet, humans either bury or burn their deads. But now a new viable option is generating great interest which gives room to dissolve the bodies in lye & flushing out the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain. The process is called alkaline hydrolysis.
Initially this method was developed a decade & half back in America, to get rid of animal carcasses. It uses lye, 300 C heat and 60 pounds of pressure per square inch to destroy bodies in big steel cylinders that are similar to pressure cookers. After that only two medical centres in US used this technique on human bodies as part of research studies. But because of environmental advantages, subsequently the funeral industries started looking towards these techniques of cremation.
It is not very often truly path breaking technologies come along in funeral services. Hence the industry feels that this novel method someday may rival the conventional burial & cremation methods. But the greatest stumbling blocks in this services are the religious beliefs, faiths & methods already used from time immemorial. Hence getting the public to accept a modern process that strikes some as ghastly may be the biggest challenge.
In United States, some of the provinces have already started offering this method of cremation with lining up for necessary regulatory approvals. But it is still in an infantry level worldwide. It is expected that this method will be accepted widely in near future due to it’s advantage over other methods, which emit toxic carbon di-oxide.