Diesel fuel odor

Lorraine Scott <lorraine.scott [at] navy__mil> writes

>What methods could be used to remove or greatly reduce diesel fuel
>odor from paper?  I do not believe fuel came in direct contact with
>the paper, but believe the strong smell emanating from the pages is
>due to long term storage in close proximity to a diesel engine on a
>tugboat.

We have encountered these issues as well with our collections,
especially items donated from basements and attics and coming from
inside tanks. I have tried many different zeolites to try to
diminish diesel odors:

Scavengel from Art Preservation Services was expensive, has to be
handled a certain way so the potassium permanganate doesn't stain
the user or the objects red, and wasn't very effective for diesel
(but very good for other bad smells like urine. I know, ewww...)

Volcanic ash has to be isolated in Reemay or other cloth bags to
avoid dust deposition onto artifacts and wasn't very effective for
diesel (but does absorb moldy smells). Kitty litter was about the
same as volcanic ash.

My best success was to isolate the smelly objects in a sealed
container or vapor impermeable bag like Marvelseal with activated
charcoal distributed into containers with an open top, covering the
top with cheesecloth so the air moved through the charcoal but the
charcoal itself did not come in contact with the artifacts. We
bought ours in bulk from

    <URL:http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com>

A small battery operated fan helps too for circulating air and
removing smells faster. If this is an ongoing problem, you may want
to purchase or build a chamber like we did that has mesh shelves to
help air movement, a battery operated fan to circulate air, and
trays in the bottom for charcoal or other zeolites.

Wouldn't it be a great student project to examine which zeolites
work best for which offenses and publish a guide? I wonder if there
are standards for measuring bad odors.

    **** Moderator's comments: Interesting question.  A quick search
    yielded a few items that might be jumping-off points, though
    they do not deal specifically with the museum environment (I
    have only skimmed through them, but they look promising).

        CEN EN 13725:2003, Air quality - Determination of odour
        concentration by dynamic olfactometry.

        Charles M. McGinley, P.E.
        Standardized Odor Measurement Practices for Air Quality
        Testing
        Presented at Air and Waste Management Association Symposium
        on Air Quality Measurement Methods and Technology - 2002,
        San Francisco, CA, 13-15 November, 2002

        <URL:http://www.fivesenses.com/Documents/Library/
        38%20Standard%20Odor%20Measure%20for%20Air%20Qual.pdf>

        Frechen, Franz-Berndt
        State of the Art of Odour Measurement
        <URL:http://www.env.go.jp/en/air/odor/measure/02_3_6.pdf>

    **** Moderator's comments: The above URLs have been wrapped for
    email. There should be no newlines.

Amber L. Tarnowski
Objects Conservator
Collections Management
U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC)
950 Soldiers Drive
Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013-5021
717-245-4930


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 25:30
                Distributed: Tuesday, December 27, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-25-30-004
                                  ***