Carbolineum is a mixture of various creosote/tar oil types which work as both insecticides and fungicides. In the past, therefore, the material was often used as an agent for the protection of wood. Today, due to its content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the brownishblack creosote is categorized as carcinogenic and harmful to the environment, and its use is forbidden. Thus the goal of the DBU project was the development of a solution for reduction of the carbolineum content in wooden objects in churches, which in the past were treated with creosote. As part of the project, the current condition of detachable elements from the pilot object, the baroque Reyer Epitaph in the St. Laurentius-Church in Tönning (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany), was analyzed. It was demonstrated through tests on original fragments that a reduction in carbolineum deposits by means of solvent extraction is possible. In the future the reduction of carbolineum deposits is to be promoted through construction of a system capable of being operated with an optimized solvent which is gentle to the objects’ frameworks, and through a further optimization of the extraction agent itself, in order to preserve the oil-bound setting and simultaneously achieve a high degree of decontamination.

 
AZ 30165