• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.377-385
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• 2012

Anoxic treatments using argon and nitrogen gas in controlled atmospheres have been used as a alternative to methyl bromide for insect disinfection in museums. Anoxic chamber system was manufactured and installed at The National Folk Museum of Korea for the first time in Korea. The internal capacity of anoxic chamber is 0.5m3 in which is able to use argon, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas. This system is equipped with oxygen concentration, temperature and ralative humidity control devices and automatically controlled oxygen concentration from 0.01 to 20%, temperature from 10 to $50^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity 30 to 80%. To control the oxygen concentration, anoxic chamber system is adopted semi-dynamic method which supplies mixture of humidified gas and dry gas whenever oxygen concentration in chamber becomes higher than setting value. It has kept regularly oxygen concentration, temperature and relative humidity for 20 days using argon gas. To evaluate the disinfection of cigarette beetle larvae and adults and varied carpet beetle larvae, the anoxic chamber system maintained 0.01% of oxygen concentration, $25^{\circ}C$ in temperature and 50% in relative humidity for 30 days. Cigarette beetle larvae were killed in 7 days and adults in 3~5 days. And varied carpet beetle larvae were killed in 3 days. It reaches the conclusion form the evaluation this anoxic chamber system can be used to develop anoxic treatment as an alternative of methyl bromide for insect disinfection of infested cultural properties in museums.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.137-148
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• 2014

Large scale anoxic chamber system(volume $28m^3$) was developed and installed at The National Folk Museum of Korea for the first time in Korea. In order to get optimal anoxic treatment condition, we compared the disinfection of adults, larvae and eggs of cigarette beetles using nitrogen and argon. The time for complete disinfection of cigarette beetles in pine wooden blocks exposed to nitrogen at oxygen concentration 0.01% and 50% in relative humidity were 15 days at $20^{\circ}C$, 10 days at $25^{\circ}C$, and 7 days $30^{\circ}C$. Time were 10 days at $20^{\circ}C$, 7 days at $25^{\circ}C$, and 5 days $30^{\circ}C$ in argon anoxic atmosphere. From the mortality of cigarette beetles, optimal disinfection condition was oxygen concentration 0.01%, $25^{\circ}C$ in temperature, 50% in relative humidity and exposure time 21 days at nitrogen atmosphere. And when large scale anoxic chamber system was supplied nitrogen by nitrogen generator for anoxic treatment of many collections or large collections, it could be operated stably. To verify optimal disinfection condition, museum insects(adults, larvae, pupae and eggs of cigarette beetles in pine wooden blocks, cotton fabrics and Korean paper book, adults and larvae of drugstore beetles in pine wooden blocks, cotton fabrics and Korean paper book, larvae of varied carpet beetles in pine wooden block and silk fabrics, adults and larvae of hide beetles and adults of rice weevils in breeding boxes) which exposed at optimal disinfection condition, were completely killed.