SOLVING MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION PROBLEMS

IN AUTOMOTIVE DIESEL

A FREE 1 day seminar Wednesday 20th May 2009

SOLVING MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION PROBLEMS in AUTOMOTIVE FUEL
Seminar 20 May 2009, Sheffield, UK

Late and pressing requests for more places necessitated a change of venue, but seamless and professional management by Schulke+ staff ensured that it was nevertheless a well organised event for the fifty plus delegates who attended.  There was a wide spread of interests, which included fuel producers, blenders, distributors, retailers and end users, and this guaranteed a well informed and lively participation.

Aubrey Burrows, Senior Technical Manager, Tesco, chaired the seminar and gave the introductory presentation, ‘Microbiological Contamination at Retail Sites’.  Following presentations came from all of the sponsors, who also provided a mini-exhibition.  All of the presentations were designed to be both educational and practical. 

Titles of sponsors’ papers were:

‘Microbes in Diesel Fuel’ and ‘Monitoring Microbial Contamination’ – ECHA Microbiology Ltd.‘Retail Site Strategies’ – Eurotank Environmental Ltd,
‘Strategies for Fuel Terminals’ – SBZ Corporation
‘Safe and Effective Use of Biocides’ – Schulke+, UK.
The seminar concluded with a speakers panel ‘brains trust’.

The take home message was undoubtedly that microbial contamination is much worse in modern biodiesel fuels, that it has different characteristics to that in hydrocarbon based diesel, that it is an industry wide problem and it will only be controlled by the efforts and cooperation of all stakeholders.  Although the tools for control have now mostly been developed, there is still some way to go in developing practical strategies for individual vehicles and for fleet operators with their own storage tanks.
Feedback at the seminar was positive and the sponsors hope that delegates found it both informative and of operational value.  Follow up to any of the sponsors is welcome.  There will be no comprehensive publication of the presentations and those looking for a copy of any particular presentation should contact the speaker.