Arjunbhai Paghdhar belonged to a farmer’s family and is now engaged in the construction and brick-making business. Long ago, when he visited the crematorium, he saw precious wood burned to cremate the body. Through this, an indelible impact was made on the mind of a young tree lover. This inspired him to create something that can save trees and forests from being burned in cremation, as according to the Hindu rituals, the funeral is by cremation, and about 400 kg of wood is used to cremate a single body. The modified wood-based crematorium innovated by Arjunbhai is a biomass gasification-based cremation process. A closed mummy shape is made of refractory bricks to ensure minimum heat loss. At the front and rear ends of the structure, doors are provided to perform Hindu rituals. Cerra wool is used on the top cover’s inner side, which can tolerate high temperatures. Blowers and nozzles are attached to release air to accelerate the cremation process. Along with this, charcoal and caustic soda filters have been provided for air filtration. Also, a chimney is provided for the air exhaust. This innovation takes an average time of 70 to 90 minutes to burn a dead body (approx. 80kg weight) using around 70 to 80 kg of wood, which is approximately 80% less wood than that used in a conventional method.
