Hydrogen Cremators: The Dutch Are Picking Up Where the UK Left Off
There’s a reason no one wants a crematorium in their neighborhood — and it’s not (always) because they don’t want a reminder of their mortality so close to home. For the most part, the opposition to new cremation establishments comes from a fear of ugly or unhealthy emissions polluting the air. While deathcare professionals understand that a properly maintained and operated cremator produces fewer pollutants than many other industrial operations, it’s still a big concern. As a result, efforts to create a “cleaner” cremation continue.
The first trial
In 2024, Worthing Crematorium in the UK became one of the first sites in the world to test-drive a hydrogen-powered cremator. The trial, dubbed the Worthing HyCrem project, took place over a four-week period from May to June 2024. During this time, one of the crematorium’s three furnaces was adapted to operate exclusively on green hydrogen.
The results of this project, which were published in 2025, showed some promise for this innovation. Testers found that a hydrogen-fuelled cremator can operate at commercial scale with burn durations comparable to those powered by natural gas. Most importantly, hydrogen reduced carbon emissions from the combustion process.
This was the good news — but there was plenty of not-so-good news, as well.
Not without challenges
For example, while hydrogen fuel offers zero carbon emissions at the point of use, the broader performance picture included logistical and economic challenges. Hydrogen deliveries required frequent tanker trips, and the installed safety infrastructure added cost and operational complexity. In contrast, the analysis found that electric cremators — powered by renewable electricity — offered the best overall performance in terms of carbon and cost effectiveness, prompting Worthing to explore electrification alongside hydrogen trials.
Now a new group of crematoriums in the Netherlands are taking up the challenge of converting to hydrogen-powered cremators as an alternative to traditional natural gas-fired furnaces. Their trial, centered on the Crematoria Twente facility in Enschede, will build on the results of the UK tests. They will try to not only demonstrate that hydrogen can sustain the high temperatures required for cremation, but to understand the broader implications for equipment durability, environmental impact and safety.
“The cremation process works well, we know that from experiments conducted in England,” Crematoria Twente director Harriët Tomassen explains. “It’s more about the effects on the equipment.”
The bigger picture
Importantly, this project is supported by European subsidies, reflecting wider policy objectives to reduce carbon emissions across sectors that traditionally have been hard to decarbonize. This supports the EU’s legally binding goal, under the European Green Deal and Climate Law, to achieve climate neutrality (net-zero greenhouse gas emissions) across the economy by 2050, with interim targets of a 55% reduction by 2030.
The Netherlands sees roughly 100,000 cremations a year, almost all currently reliant on natural gas, which emits carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a by-product of combustion. By switching to green hydrogen, those emissions could be eliminated, offering families the choice of a carbon-neutral farewell.
The implications of these trials are far-reaching. For deathcare professionals, understanding emerging technologies like hydrogen-fueled cremation is crucial as families increasingly ask about sustainable funeral practices. Hydrogen is one of the most promising avenues for reducing the sector’s climate impact without fundamentally altering the cremation process that many expect and trust.
Yet challenges remain. Hydrogen infrastructure, fuel cost, regulatory frameworks and technical adaptations of existing cremators will all influence how and when hydrogen becomes a mainstream option. Even so, the Netherlands’ and UK’s early leadership provides a blueprint for innovation in a sector that has long lagged behind others in adopting low-carbon technologies.
