A survey of microbial contamination in aviation fuel from aircraft fuel tanks

Abstract

Microbial contamination poses a great threat to aviation system security through mechanisms such as microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC), fuel filter clogging, and fuel deterioration. In this study, a survey of microbial contamination in aviation fuel obtained from aircraft fuel tanks was performed to test the relationship between microbial contamination and aircraft service life. The contaminating microorganisms were counted, isolated, identified, and subjected to preliminary characterization. A low risk of microbial contamination in the selected samples was confirmed, and there was no significant difference in the counts between culturable bacteria and fungi (p > 0.05). Phylogenetic analysis tree indicated that the diversity of culturable microorganisms was rather low, with 17 bacterial isolates belonging to 13 genera and 12 fungal isolates belonging to 5 genera. No yeast was isolated. The growth characteristics of these isolates indicated that the aircraft fuel tanks harbored various microorganisms that were able to utilize the aviation fuel as a source of carbon and energy. Meanwhile, some isolates caused emulsification and produced acid. The conclusions of this study were that various hazardous microorganisms can root in aircraft aviation fuel tanks. There was no relationship between microbial contamination and aircraft service life (p > 0.05), and continuous good maintenance suppressed microbial proliferation.