Description du projet
Une nouvelle méthode à base d’oxygène pour la conservation du patrimoine culturel
Les biens du patrimoine culturel matériel sont des ressources précieuses et irremplaçables de l’humanité, qui sont de plus en plus menacées par les polluants, le vandalisme et les incendies. Les méthodes de nettoyage actuelles nécessitent une action mécanique et des solvants qui peuvent endommager les biens matériels et nuire à la santé et à l’environnement. Le nettoyage avec des atomes d’oxygène à très courte durée de vie, l’oxygène atomique, pourrait être une solution révolutionnaire. Des experts en physique des plasmas, en sciences et en conservation du patrimoine issus de 10 instituts de recherche, musées et PME d’Europe, ont uni leurs forces dans un nouveau projet MOXY, coordonné par l’Université de Gand, qui entend développer une technologie de nettoyage écologique inédite pour éliminer les polluants sans contact et sans risque pour la santé ou l’environnement.
Objectif
Climate crisis and unsustainable development increasingly threaten Europe’s tangible cultural heritage (CH), yet environmentally hazardous chemicals persist in CH conservation practice. The Sustainable Development Goals of the EU’s Green Deal vision call for change in CH conservation, but cannot be implemented without effective and affordable green alternatives. Soiling and deposition of carbon-based contaminants (CBC) such as fine particulate pollution, smoke and vandalism all increasingly present formidable challenges to conservators, and are an emerging threat to CH because of the inherent vulnerability of CH surfaces created with unconventional materials and studio practices. Existing CH cleaning methods require toxic solvents, physical contact and water, which can damage many sensitive CH materials, and conservators, equipped with only conventional means, now encounter fragile and untreatable CH where soiling cannot be removed at all. MOXY aims to redefine the paradigm in cleaning methodology towards an eco-conscious approach by creating a transformative green, non-contact technology based on atomic oxygen (AO) to selectively remove CBCs from surfaces that are otherwise untreatable. AO cleaning methodology is a selective, non-mechanical and liquid-free cleaning action, without health or environmental risks, residues or waste. By leveraging a sophisticated yet simple technology, MOXY will enable practitioners to achieve unprecedented results that are green, safer and more effective. To achieve its goals, MOXY will bring together expertise from plasma physics, conservation science, sustainability science, and conservators to conduct a novel investigation of the physical and chemical aspects of AO generation and flux to develop a proof-of-concept AO system, test the viability of AO technology for diverse CH materials, and roadmap AO innovation, to propel AO technology to the bench practice in CH conservation and beyond, with its full potential yet to be realized.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencessustainability sciences
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesplasma physics
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinateur
9000 Gent
Belgique