TED Community » Egidius Kuhlmann

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Reading about peak-oil, overpopulation, “Terra Preta” and biochar in 2009 and after making batches biochar for soil improvement from garden residue, I thought, why not make biochar from corpses.

An idea worth spreading

Pyrolysium.org is a web platform for the promotion and development of pyrolysis as an efficient way to dispose of human remains using the least amount of energy possible.

Pyrolysium limits the use of scarce fossil fuels by requiring less material to burn and lower temperatures to burn it at, reducing the formation of carbon dioxide. It turns human remains into biochar, a process which also greatly reduces the amount of carbon dioxide produced.

Pyrolysium is a low-tech, viable alternative to current standard burial and cremation practices and to expensive modern high-tech alternatives, which are based on the assumption of endless resources and which depend on sophisticated practices and steady supply lines.

Pyrolysium.org will be a forum for collaboration in an “open source” kind of way to improve, develop and divulge this idea, and to make sure that it is not patented so that it is available to the whole human race as a tool on the down-slope towards a sustainable future.

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• A comment on Conversation: Pyrolysium wants to introduce pyrolysis as an energy-efficient green way to deal with human remains.

  Aug 28 2012: For more background information visit the website of Pyrolysium at http://pyrolysium.org

• A reply on Conversation: Pyrolysium wants to introduce pyrolysis as an energy-efficient green way to deal with human remains.

  Aug 27 2012: No it's biochar a form of black carbon that can be used for soil improvement by planting a commemorative tree.