Portchester Crematorium greener cremators ruled out

About 3,000 cremations a year are currently carried out at Portchester Crematorium

Aims to make a crematorium more environmentally friendly have been thwarted because of a lack of space.

Portchester Crematorium in Portsmouth, which disposes of 3,000 bodies a year, wanted to replace its ageing cremators with cheaper and greener electric machines but did not have the room.

Fareham Borough Council had wanted to reduce its carbon emissions.

It will instead recommend replacing the machines with natural gas equipment, which is potentially more polluting.

A report by the council into the £3.5m project found electric cremators, which produce half the carbon emissions of natural gas machines, were larger than those currently in place.

"Due to the proximity of nearby properties, three is the maximum number of this type of cremators that we can provide", the report - seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) - said.

The cremation process would also take longer with the greener machines and "we will not be able to accommodate the existing numbers within the normal working day", the report added.

Fareham Borough Council wanted a greener option at Portchester Crematorium but is limited by space

It noted crematorium staff could work longer hours but that would not leave any time for maintenance.

The feasibility study also warned long-term costs were "unclear" and questioned whether there was enough power to run the electric equipment.

Other technologies were considered, including hydrogen which was ruled out due to difficulties in distribution.

Microwave cremation was dismissed due to the lack of approved equipment and biogas was discounted for cost reasons.

The process of resomation, where bodies are disposed of using heat and lye, and composting were also considered, LDRS said.

Promession, where bodies are freeze-dried and then atomised, was explored as an option in the past but was discounted in 2008, the report said.

"By the nature of the age of the cremators we do not have a do-nothing option," the report said.

"We can reduce our emissions but with current technology we cannot achieve a zero-carbon cremation," it added.

The study will be considered by councillors on Monday.