Mass Deacidification in the 1990s

Abstract

The Key to all Mythologies is the “modest” title of a book which George Eliot’s character Edward Casaubon1 inevitably never finishes writing. As I delved into the rapidly proliferating literature on mass deacidification, I identified with Casaubon’s quest. The mass deacidification literature of the past twenty years provides a tale of political, economic, technological, and human struggle that is truly Sisyphean. However, rather than try to unlock the mysteries of the universe as did poor Casaubon, my goals here are to provide some historical background on deacidification and to synthesize the recent literature.

The purpose of deacidification is to neutralize . . .