What is Microbial Contamination?
There are at least 27 separate species of microbes – bacteria, yeast and fungus that can exist in and feed on crude oil (and it’s products). These oil eating micro-organisms have a natural affinity with petroleum based products because they actually produced crude oil by decomposing billions of tons of ancient forests and animals. Subsequently when crude oil is extracted from the ground it has a resident microbial population – fortunately this is killed off during the refining process. However, just as they did millions of years ago, oil eating microbes exist abundantly in our environment today. Their spores travel freely in the air and water and readily re-enter petroleum products at any point in the petroleum supply chain and your fuel tanks – through breather caps and filler ports. Then with the right conditions – a temperature range between 15o and 44oC and a little free standing water and a single cell weighing virtually nothing can rapidly grow, divide in two and so on, to become
Related Questions
- Does novoxx not only avoid the microbial contamination but can it also "equalise" already existing contamination (by unpurified production process)?
- What requirements apply for preventing microbial contamination from sick or infected personnel and for hygienic practices?
- What factors may lead to microbial contamination of ground water?
