Determination of the severity of microbial contamination in diesel fuel of a storage tank. Rangra Prahlad, Chaturvedi Tina, Bhattacharya Amit* Dow microbial Control, Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd., Plot no. 8A/1, 2 Kalwa Block, Thane Belapur Road, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra *Correspondence Author E-mail: banwaril@teri.res.in
Online published on 21 March, 2015. Abstract Background Hydrocarbon degrading microorganisms has been reported from fuels including diesel (1). Current literature suggests that microbial species can be metabolically active in complex hydrocarbon and degrade up to 66% of diesel oil in just 28 days (5). In this study the diesel samples collected from storage tank were found heavily contaminated with microorganisms which are already reported as potential biodegrades. Method Detection of the microbial contamination was done by serial dilution plating on R2A for aerobic bacteria, PDA for fungal and Sulphate API agar for anaerobic bacteria. Further isolated bacterial species was identified by Biolog system. Results Diesel samples were found heavily contaminated with species known for degrading oil and its products. Conclusion This study has proved that diesel oil is highly prone to the microbial contamination which can lower down the product performance to a great extant therefore; the need is to prevent diesel oil from getting contaminated with the microbial species. Addition of high quality and environment friendly biocides is important to prevent microbial growth in Diesel. Top Keywords Diesel oil, Biocides, Corrosion, Contamination, Biolog. Top |