International Journal on Emerging Trends in Technology (IJETT)

ISSN: 2455 - 0124 (ONLINE) | 2350 - 0808 (PRINT) | (IF: 0.456)

Volume 3 | Issue 2 | July - 2016 | Special Issue
www.ijett.in

Design and Analysis of Energy Efficient

Crematorium for Eco Body Burning
Shilpa S Badge1, A.A. Bhole2, Prasad Kokil3
shilpasbadge15@gmail.com1 , bholeanita66@gmail.com2, prasad.kokil@sanjaygroup.in3
Electrical Engineering Department1, Electrical Engineering Department2, Sanjay Techno Plast Pvt. Ltd. Aurangabad 3
Government Engineering College Aurangabad1, Government Engineering College Aurangabad2, Sanjay Techno Plast Pvt. Ltd. Aurangabad3

ABSTRACT
To live the human, like basic needs there is need to optimize the use
of energy, as there is fast depletion of non-renewable energy sources
and similarly degradation of environment. Human life is changing
day by day. But not in case of rituals, after the death in Hindu
religion, because they believe in, to cremate the human dead body
with wood only. This cremation requires 500 and above Kgs of
wood. This requirement of wood comes through degradation of forest
and results in air pollution, while burning the wood greenhouse gases
are emitted like CO2 in atmosphere. This also causes the water
pollution due to ash disposal in river water after cremation. There are
developments in cremation sector like electric crematorium, wood
gasifier crematorium, solar crematorium etc. These solutions on this
unfocused issue not so popularized as these designs are closed and
prevent from rituals like mukhagni and kapalkriya. The main
objective of this paper is to optimize the use of wood fuel in
cremation sector by designing and analyzing the improved
crematorium, beware the culture and use of renewable energy
sources.
In this paper, the concept of wood based energy efficient crematoria
in India is studied & its design and analysis is presented.
Keywords
Crematorium, solar crematorium, woodgasifier crematorium,
Mokshda, Eco Body Burning System
1. INTRODUCTION
As per the survey in India, about seven millions Hindus die each
year. Many of them are traditionally cremated & it requires 500 to
600kg of wood per cremation. 50 to 60 million trees are burned
during cremations every year. Burning wood for cremation represents
the large source of air pollution which consists of 40% of carbon
dioxide, 32% carbon monoxide, 20% of particulates, and 50% of
highly carcinogenic poly-aromatic hydrocarbons. These gases
contribute greenhouse effect, due to which global warming is the
major problem. The light, from the sun helps to keep this planet
warm. Of the 100% light that sun sends to earth, almost 30% sunlight
is reflected back into the space and 70% of the sunlight is absorbed
by the oceans, the land and the atmosphere. If the quantity of
greenhouse gases is increased, it will trap more heat causing Global
warming. Electric cremation has not been popularized much in India,
as Hindus still do not want to shed away their traditional belief.
Orthodox families believe that an electric crematorium, which is a
covered crematorium, don’t allow the soul to be released from the
body and thereby it mingles with other souls and the concerned
person will not be reincarnated again. Many also believe that the
most important ritual that is performed in the traditional pyre known
as the “kapalkriya”, where a long bamboo stick is used to crack open
the skull which is burning to free the soul from its mortal remains is
not possible in electric cremation. Electric cremations in India have
also failed not only due to religious reasons but also due to technical
snags and lack of finances in maintenance[1][2][4]. Considering
different impact of Crematorium on our environment, the process of
cremation should be clean and eco-friendly. Energy saving and cost
effectiveness is more important from manufacturer side. In this paper
our main concern is to reduce the amount of wood used for cremation
as well as to make the cremation system more effective and efficient
by introducing Green technologies. In this paper the new proposed
model for wood based crematorium, which optimize the required
amount of fuel with the help of biomass technology and improved
mechanical design and with use of renewable energy.
2. AVAILABLE CREMATORIUM DESIGN
Presently there are four different type of Crematorium in use as
below.
2.1 Biomass Gasifier Crematorium:
The biomass gasifier crematorium is built with double chamber
cremation furnace with a strong cremation bed and secondary air
holes. The cremation furnace is constructed with high quality alumina
refractory bricks, fire bricks, insulation bricks, arch bricks, various
size and types of slabs and bonded with high quality castables, fire
clay and mortars with a specific type of curing to the furnace to
withstand the temperature up to 1200 degree centigrade [6].
2.2 Electric crematorium:

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 International Journal on Emerging Trends in Technology (IJETT)
ISSN: 2455 - 0124 (ONLINE) | 2350 - 0808 (PRINT) | (IF: 0.456)
Volume 3 | Issue 2 | July - 2016 | Special Issue
www.ijett.in
Electric crematorium is built with double chamber cremation furnace burned for emissions control and heat losses through the insulation
with a strong cremation bed and secondary air holes. Electric and in the flue gases.
cremation furnace capacity is 54 kW. The Electric heating coil is
made up of NICROME 80/20 in the form of 25mm diameter coil with
terminal rods and the entire furnace heating coil system (Coil holding
brick wall) will be bonded with the side walls [5]. Table2
Estimation of Total Energy required in Crematorium

2.3 Solar Crematorium: Substance Weight in Heating Total heating

In this system it consists of Scheffler Reflector, Tracking System, Kg Values values (kCal)
Cremation Chamber, Backup system for non-sunny hours. Solar rays per
are concentrated on the crematorium chamber which present at it weight
focal length, due to which desirable temperature range is obtained unit
[3]. (kCal/Kg)
Water 40.04 986.00 39479.44
Protein 11.05 5400 59670
2.4 Mokshda Green Cremation System: Fat 8.97 9500 85215
MGCS has been designed on sound principles of thermal science to Total 15886 184364.44
maximize the combustion efficiency and minimizing wastage of heat.
Therefore, pyre (main part of the system) has been made of high-
grade heat, corrosion and thermal-shock resistant alloy steel, which From above calculation we can see that approximately 184364.44
can withstand high temperature conditions and corrosive kCal of energy is required to burn a human dead body which is
environment[1][2]. approximately 771.897 MJ of Energy.
Common wood contains about 16.2 MJ/Kg of specific energy. So for
Table 1 complete burning the human dead body, amount of wood required
Comparison between different Crematoriums can be calculated as follow:
1 kg of Wood produce16.2 MJ
Sr. So to produce 771.897 MJ, 47.64 Kg wood will be required.
Type Main Wood Time Remarks
No. But this is an ideal case considering that the system is 100% efficient.
Fuel Consump
That is all the energy used by wood is utilized. But traditional
tions
crematorium has very poor efficiency due to which wood
1 Biomass Biogas 60-70 Kgs 60-90 Fuel cost requirement is increased from 47.64 Kg to 400 Kg or more. So the
Gasifier +Woods min is high major objective is to reduce the amount of wood required in
Crematorium traditional crematorium which can be accepted by Hindu society.
2 Electric Electricity Nil 60-90 375kWh
crematorium min per
person
4. PROPOSED NEW DESIGN FOR
3 MGCS Wood 100 Kgs 60-90 High CREMATORIUM
min chimney The proposed design of crematorium comprises of mechanical system
is and solar PV system.
required
4.1 Mechanical System Design
The solar cremation system requires reflectors, and tracking system The proposed Crematorium has two chambers, the lower portion
makes a little complicated design chamber is primary chamber and the upper portion is secondary
chamber. The dimension of proposed crematorium is as shown in
3. ENERGY REQUIRED FOR CREMATION table 3.
A human body usually contains a negative caloric value, meaning
that energy is required to combust it. This is a result of the high water
content; all water must be vaporized which requires a very large
amount of thermal energy. A 65Kg body which contains 61.6% of
water will require approximately 160 MJ of thermal energy before
any combustion will take place. The heat consumption for the
evaporation of body water and the superheating of the steam to
800°C thus amounts to 986 kcal for 1 kg of water. Animal fat has a
heating value of some 9,500 kcal/kg, hence, in the thermal balance
the heat added by 1 kg of fat is equal to the heat lost by the
vaporization of (9,500÷986) 9.6 kg of water. For the proteins with a
heat value of about 5,400 kcal/kg this ratio is roughly 1:5.5 in terms
3 3
of weight. 100 MJ is approximately equivalent to 32 m (105 ft )
of natural gas, or 3 liters of fuel oil. Additional energy is necessary
to make up for the heat capacity ("preheating") of the furnace; fuel Fig. 1.Basic structure of proposed eco body burning system

ICSTSD 2016 | 4130

 International Journal on Emerging Trends in Technology (IJETT)
ISSN: 2455 - 0124 (ONLINE) | 2350 - 0808 (PRINT) | (IF: 0.456)
Volume 3 | Issue 2 | July - 2016 | Special Issue
www.ijett.in
Table3 Below the primary and secondary chamber there is ash container to
Proposed Crematorium Dimensions collect ash after cremation. The amount of ash is reduced as the use
of minimum wood and biomass fuel.
Sr. Dimension Length in m
No.
1 Length 2

2 Height 1.060

3 Width 0.950

As shown in Fig.2. new proposed design of crematorium is covered

by metallic sheet from all four sides . From inside it is hollow and the
lower chamber consists of 0.004m(height) grate having length 0.95 m
and width 0.500m. Air supply for necessary combustion is provided
by 0.0254m diameter pipe. Working of both Primary and Secondary
chamber is described below:
1) Primary Chamber: Biomass briquettes are used as fuel for
primary chamber, while burning these briquettes increases the
chamber temperature between 900  C to 1160  C . Fig .3 shows
the primary chamber and secondary chamber air flow. The Primary
chamber consists of Reserve Tank for having sufficient air which can
be used when required.
2) Secondary Chamber: This chamber contains the body which is
covered by wood layer of 0.170 m height. It has an important
function to control the flame height and it resists hot gases to release
at open space above the crematoria. Due to this heat loss is reduced.
The air flow in this chamber starts with some time delay.
Rotor Current (A)
Fig. 4: Parallel and Series connected battery system
4.2. Solar PV System Design
For proper air circulation throughout the chambers 1.5 hp of blower
is used. For 4 cremations take place per day and each cremation
required 3 hours, total energy required for the day is 14547 Wh. If
two day storage capacity is considered then 29094 Whrs storage is
required. To have the whole system eco-friendly as well as energy
efficient, the blower gets the electric energy from the Solar PV
system. Considering 100 Wp, Solar panel at 48 V to charge the
battery arrays with each battery having capacity 24 V/150 Ah, the
configuration shown in fig. 4 is used i.e. 5 batteries connected in
parallel and 2 batteries in series.[7][8][9][10]
5. RESULT
5.1. MATLAB simulation for blower driven by
solar
Fig.5 shows the simulation result of blower connected to solar PV
system. The first graph shows the rotor current whose frequency is
less as compared to the stator current. As blower is driven by
induction motor so the rotor current frequency is low due to slip.

Fig. 2. Proposed Design of Crematorium

Stator current (A)

X AXIS REFERS TIME IN SECONDS

Fig.5 Simulation result showing current waveform Of Blower

Fig. 3 Primary and Secondary Chamber of Proposed Crematorium

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 International Journal on Emerging Trends in Technology (IJETT)
ISSN: 2455 - 0124 (ONLINE) | 2350 - 0808 (PRINT) | (IF: 0.456)
Volume 3 | Issue 2 | July - 2016 | Special Issue
www.ijett.in

PRIMARY CHAMBER HOLES

SECONDARY CHAMBER HOLES

Fig. 6 Rotor speed (RPM)

Fig.6 shows the speed of blower rotor to create required air flow for
the crematorium system. For different pressure the blower speed can Fig 7. Chart Showing Air velocity for different holes of Primary and
be adjusted such that required pressure can be generated. Secondary Chamber

5.2. Results for air circulation through primary Total time required to fill the reserve tank from 0 to7.03 kg cm 2
and secondary =3min. Time required to drain air from reserve tank for both primary
As Primary and Secondary chamber has circular pipe for air & secondary hole is 10 min. Time required to complete empty
circulation, each holes in the pipe have different pressure level due to reserve tank for primary hole is only 16min. Time required to
which the air coming out from each holes have different velocity complete empty reserve tank for secondary hole is 38 min. Fig.7
shown in the Table 4 given below shows the variation of air speed from different holes of primary
chamber pipes and secondary chamber pipes.
Table 4
Air velocity at different holes with different pressure Three trials have been taken on the new proposed crematorium which
provides the desirable result as shown in the table 5.
2. Reserve Tank
1.Blower(Velocity=14. (Velocity=23.368m/sec for Table5
14m/sec) primary & Velocity=6.44 m/sec Results of new proposed Crematorium trial
for secondary )
Ho Primary Secondary Primary Primary Seconda
le (Total (Total (Total (Total ry Trial Body Biomass Wood Temperature Time
No Hole 16) Hole Hole 16) Hole 16) (Total No. Weight briquettes (Kg) ( c ) (Min.
. Hole 18)Hole Pressure Pressure Hole (Kg) (Kg) )
Size=0.0 Size=0.002 Set Set 18)Press 1 60 170 40 1175.23 65
025m 5m 4.0788 3.05914 ure Set
kg/cm2 kg/cm2 0.8157
2 62 190 43 1225.41 72
kg/cm2
1 0.66 0.807 1.137 0.721 0.401 3 65 200 48 1228.6 80
2 0.843 0.883 1.082 0.645 0.228
3 0.772 0.934 1.788 0.762 0.2336
4 0.787 0.802 1.127 0.883 0.345
5 0.985 0.685 1.574 1.442 0.238
6 0.949 0.944 1.554 0.985 0.259 6. CONCLUSION
7 0.701 0.843 1.132 - 0.32 The amount of wood requirement for cremation is decreased from
8 0.822 0.848 2.006 1.371 0.406 400Kg to approximately 50Kg. Due to introduction of biomass fuel,
9 0.878 0.609 1.27 1.076 0.259 the temperature of crematorium is increased to desirable level, and
10 0.97 0.645 1.163 1.264 0.477 amount of residual ash is also reduced. Primary and Secondary
11 0.782 0.873 - 0.472 chamber plays an very important role of air circulation due to which
12 0.955 1.183 1.935 1.107 0.401 time required for cremation is decreased, also helps in efficient
13 0.955 1.016 1.046 0.889 0.345 burning of fuel and body. The new proposed eco body burning
14 0.822 0.746 1.513 0.949 0.264 system introduces the green technology which consists of improved
15 0.949 0.792 1.27 0.904 0.472 mechanical design with optimized size. Fuel used for cremation is the
16 0.721 0.868 1.031 0.995 0.325 biomass fuel which approaches for the waste to energy having high
17 0.919 0.243 calorific value and low cost. To make the system green, the blower
18 0.706 0.259 for air circulation is driven with the help of solar energy. This
improved design for wood based crematoria is more efficient than
existing cremation systems. The whole system addresses the process
of burning is environmental friendly working so, can be named as eco
body burning system.

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 International Journal on Emerging Trends in Technology (IJETT)
ISSN: 2455 - 0124 (ONLINE) | 2350 - 0808 (PRINT) | (IF: 0.456)
Volume 3 | Issue 2 | July - 2016 | Special Issue
www.ijett.in

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