The use of Nitrogen to protect cultural heritage.

The technique of controlled atmosphere is based on nitrogen, in particular also when cultural heritage is to be preserved, whose materials are mostly of organic nature (such as wood, paper, fabric, etc.), subject to degradation as well as to pre-oxidation, due to some insects which feed on various substrata of said materials.

The integrity of wooden artifacts and structures, cloths, tapestries, manuscripts, etc., can be preserved by specific treatments, using Marvil’s equipment and technologies.

In practice, as for the means adopted for the disinfestation of food commodities, the item to be treated is isolated by realizing a specific tight casing and insufflating controlled nitrogen to reduce the oxygen percentage; in this way infesting insects are killed by anoxia.

The duration of treatment depends not only on the respective volumes but also on the temperature and relative humidity, insect types and their development stages. After the treatment, the objects can be protected inside special tight cases, under nitrogen.