A NEW TECHNOLOGY WITH POTENTIAL INTEREST FOR CONSERVATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE: VAPORIZED HYDROGEN PEROXIDE STERILIZATION (VHPS)

The VHPS technology can be considered as a safer and more environmentally friendly method for decontamination of works of art, and environments, colonized by microorganisms (fungi, bacteria). The application of this technology allowed that: • the procedure has to be performed on site; • the procedure has to be repeated in several runs; • the procedure has to perform microbial biocide and sporocide; • the human toxicity has to be controllable (safe working environment); • the gaseous mixture has to avoid creating a cumulative chemical toxic burden; • the validation and reproducibility of the decontamination process. In the present work we put together the information coming from the applicat…