Due to the development in the field of alternative fuels such as esterified vegetable oils and increasingly from de-fossilised, paraffinic products such as hydrogenated vegetable oils (HVO) or synthetic fuels (XtL) to oxygenates to mineral oil-based products, there are significant changes with regard to composition and product properties. In the future, it can be expected that the diversification and flexibilisation of energy sources to ensure security of supply, will lead to an increase in the material flows from synthesis processes for the production of paraffinic energy sources.
The resulting increasingly heterogeneous composition changes and determines the "millieu" for possible bacterial growth. Against this background, the influence of alternative fuels on microbiological activity has not yet been sufficiently systematically investigated.
Within the DGMK projects 715 and 770 the identification of microorganisms in storage tanks, the definition of growth-relevant parameters and the influence of microbes on materials and middle distillates were in the foreground.