One of the positive things of living during the winter months in a Florida golf community is that I get to meet and play golf with lots of new people with greatly differing backgrounds from my own.  Just last Friday I got paired up with two new friends — one a retired police officer from the Bronx and the other a native Englishman with his last thirty years being spent in Manhattan in the financial services sector and now involved, in retirement, in private equity and venture capital.

I learned a lot from both of them about what they had done during their careers and while I enjoyed visiting about policing in the Bronx, the English gentleman and I had a discussion about funeral homes and PE and also about the potential for Hydrogen-fired crematories that if found useable would vastly lower the carbon emissions that the ecology-minded public has complained greatly about with today’s cremators.

Back in 2024 the Worthing Crematorium in Great Britain participated for four weeks in what was described as the “HyCrem” test project about this exact idea — the fueling of crematories with hydrogen.  Among other findings the following findings were published about that project:

1. Hydrogen-fueled cremation operates at a commercial scale with burn durations comparable to natural gas, and on average, hydrogen cremations were found to be 4% faster.
2. The switch to 100% green hydrogen eliminates carbon emissions from the cremation process.
3. The test confirmed that hydrogen can sustain the high temperatures required for cremation.
4. Despite successful technical performance, the trial identified logistical and economic challenges, including the need for frequent hydrogen deliveries via tanker and added costs for safety infrastructure.

From what I understand, the biggest obstacle in the Worthing HyCrem project was the delivery of hydrogen to the facility on a regular basis.  In my golf round discussion, however, the Englishman told me that he is involved in a firm backed by venture capital that has patents for turning water into hydrogen “on site”  or “point of use hydrogen generation” for energy purposes instead of having tanks delivered.

My guess is that if that can be done in large quantities it would greatly increase the opportunity for hydrogen-fired crematories that could be powered simply by having water available at the crematory site and not have to rely on large and frequent deliveries of hydrogen. . . . . You never know, but I love trying to put these solutions together.

Related —  This article will give you information on another study being done on hydrogen-fired cremation.  The article is current, a January 2026 article titled “Netherlands launches first trial of hydrogen-powered cremation with EU support”.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• “Best of both worlds”:  Southtowns funeral home now offering green burials.  Video news story and print article.  WKBW TV – Buffalo (NY)
• Regulation of the Funeral Industry.  House of Commons – Parliament (United Kingdom)
• Longtime funeral director will step down after 40 years.  Akron Beacon Journal (OH)
• Local funeral home brings cremation to rural areas.  Fairmont Sentinel (MN)

Enter your e-mail below to join the 3,201 others who receive Funeral Director Daily articles daily

“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”