Case study of a solar-powered Crematorium

Sammanfattning

This master thesis involves a study concerning human crematorium equipment and includes the cremation furnace and all components between the machine and chimney. Cremation is a common burial ritual in many countries worldwide, where fossil fuel is a common support fuel in the process. In India, it is common to cremate on open sites, which leads to pollutant air and deforestation. An electrical cremator can be operated 100 % by renewable energy sources if the crematorium uses electrical energy. Therefore, a simulation is performed in MATLAB concerning an electrical cremator operated in one setup partly by solar energy, in a second setup, completely by solar energy (off-grid), for three different locations spread out over the world. The result shows that it is possible to cover a significant amount of the cremator's annual energy demand with solar energy and take down the costs. An operation that relies 100 % on solar power off-grid can be managed for locations with beneficial solar conditions and achieve lower annual energy costs than a diesel-operated cremator that uses 30 litres per cremation. This can pave the way for funeral directors in the future, where they can offer customers a new sustainable and innovative way of cremation. Moreover, a cremation with solar energy could also fulfil many people's last wishes due to religion and environmental actions.