ASTM International is a worldwide leader in the development and delivery of voluntary consensus standards and it has recently approved a new Standard Test Method for detecting microbial contamination in liquid fuels using immunoassay techniques; designated as ASTM D8070.
The Standard Guide for Microbial Contamination in Fuels and Fuel Systems section recommends that testing should be completed on site within a few minutes of sampling. However, the regulation also states that if the test cannot be undertaken on site fuel samples must be transported on ice and tested between four hours and 24 hours after sampling. Fuelstat overcomes this potential problem as the test is conducted on site, negating the danger of changes to levels of contamination in the sample caused by transportation at the incorrect temperature.
There are a number of proprietary tests on the market to determine the presence of microbial contamination but many are laboratory based tests or rely on culture growth and are therefore time consuming. Fuelstat is a simple 10-minute test and no special skills are required to use it so no investment is needed for an operator to translate the results.
