MIRCE Science approach to maintenance of microbial contamination of fuel tanks in COVID-19 grounded aircraft

Original Scientific Paper distributed under the CC BY 4.0

Year 2021, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 1-8

Jezdimir Knezevic 

MIRCE Akademy, Woodbury Park, Exeter, United Kingdom

jk@mirceakademy.com

Microbial contamination of aviation fuel tanks is a known physical phenomena to airlines that are dealing with it in accordance to manufacturer guidelines. However, as the disastrous COVID-19 pandemic has left aircraft grounded and scattered across airfields around the world there is a danger that contaminated fuel could cause undesirable consequences to a fuel system like: clogging of fuel filters, corroding tanks, performance degrading combustion quality, as well as damaging the rubber components specific to the fuel tank, thus impacting the functionability performance of an aircraft. A full understanding of these mechanisms is essential for the determination of the most effective maintenance policy for testing the fuel of grounded aircraft. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to address microbial contamination of fuel tanks in COVID-19 grounded aircraft as a potential mechanism of the motion of an aircraft through MIRCE Space. Recommendations for the fuel contamination testing maintenance programme are presented in the paper, which should assist airlines to ensure that fuel systems of over 20,000 temporarily grounded aircraft are safe when the time comes for them to resume operations.

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