Microbiological contamination of aviation fuel, especially stored aviation fuel, is an increasingly serious issue. Not only can it compromise the quality of the fuel, it can seriously damage tanks and systems - especially if it’s left unchecked for long enough that MIC (microbially influenced corrosion) develops.
The best practices for keeping stored aviation fuel healthy intersects with many of the recommendations for preserving over-the-road fuel, but with a handful of key exceptions. Monitoring water levels and removal of free water is a universal recommendation. But the options for administering certain kinds of fuel preservation treatments are a lot more limited for aviation fuel.
Precisely because of the limited options to solve microbial growth in aviation fuel, microbial testing of stored aviation fuel becomes a higher priority. Once a microbial problem is detected in an aviation storage tank, the microbial population is likely well established enough to require expensive remediation efforts - especially when the normal first option in the regiment, biocide, has such few options in aviation.
The most important thing is to monitor microbial populations in aviation storage tanks, giving you the ability to take action before they increase to the point where biomass, and corrosion damage develop. This is one of the value propositions of ATP-By-Filtration testing. It delivers accurate in-field microbial readings in less than 10 minutes, allowing aviation decision makers to make the right real-time decisions for their systems.
