AboutDavid L. Russell, PE Expertise I`m a Chemical,Civil and Environmental Engineer and have a number of projects in all phases of the environment.
I have worked in the chemical industry and am active in professional societies, and am currently on an industrial wastes committee for the Water Environment Federation, and have taught courses in remediation in the US and abroad.
I have written one book on Remediation of petroleum Contaminated Sites, and have a second book on PRACTICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT to be published by John Wiley in September, 2006. I've also written over 30 articles on various elements of environmental problems and cleanup. Most Recently, I have addressed a NATO Scientific and Techical Conference on Ecoterrorism, and have worked with the same group on remediation of sites contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent materials and othe materials as well. . I can answer q`s about Chemical and Environmental Engineering, land development, air pollution, water pollution, soil and water cleanup, combustion, international environmental problems, industrial processes chemical processes. Civil and Environmental and Chemical Engineering. Overall, I have over 35 years of experience in this area. Note: I do not answer homework questions
Experience I love work in the third world and developing areas
because it is challenging and one can get a sense of accomplishment.
Question If heat transfer for cremation of 150-pound human body is by radiation only and such cremation must be done within 10 seconds, what is your estimate of required temperature of heat-emitting body? (This is no homework question. I received my BSChE from Virginia Tech in 1949
Answer First, I don't think that the standard includes only radiation and second I don't believe that it is only a ten second requirement.
My gut reaction about the heat required would be WOW, that's Huge.
Just in terms of the fluid if a human body is about 95% water, and I believe that's an acceptable figure, we are talking about 1300 BTU per pound or so, it may be only 1100 but that's close. So that would require about 150*0.95*1300= 185,250 BTU to evaporate the water. Reducing that figure maybe 20% for the combustibles in the body, that still gives you a figure close to 150,000 BTU (148,200 BTU) . Ten seconds would require 66.7 Million BTU/HR to accomplish that in ten seconds.
Even with Radiation, assuming an efficiency factor of about 20% initially (based upon color) and a final factor of close to unity (again based upon charring) I might use a guess at 0.1 to 0.8 for the transfer of radiant energy (absorbance)I might be tempted to pick a value in the range of 0.4 to 0.5. So the energy source would have to produce between 300,000 and 400,000 BTU in that ten second burst of energy, which would produce 1055 watts per BTU per second, or a total of about 156351000 watts or 156.351 Gigawatts.
Hope that helps. I'm a bit rusty on the use of radiation, but something close to those values might do the trick. Barbeque anyone?
