ESCUELA POLITÉCNICA NACIONAL

INGENIERÍA EN PETRÓLEOS
TRATAMIENTO DE AGUAS DE FORMACIÓN
Joshua Rosero Aguinaga
2017-12-07

BIOSURFACTANTS

Vijayakumar & Saravanan (2015) define the biosurfacatns as “the surface-active biomolecules
produced by microorganisms with wide-range of applications”. These substances are produced
extracellularly or as part of the cell membrane by bacteria and fungi (Mulligan, 2005).
Biosurfactant applications in the environmental industries are growing due to their
biodegradability, low toxicity and effectiveness in enhancing biodegradation and solubilization
of low solubility compounds, which are very common in oil industry.

The three major functions played by biosurfactants including (Rosenberg & Ron, 1999). They
are used to increase the surface area of hydrophobic substrates. Biosurfactants also used to
increase the bioavailability of hydrophobic substrates through solubilization/desorption. They
also regulate the attachment and removal of microorganisms from the surfaces.

The unique and distinct properties of biosurfactants when compared to their chemically
synthesized counterparts and broad substrate availability made them suitable for commercial
applications. The distinctive features of microbial surfactants are related to their surface
activity, tolerance to pH, temperature and ionic strength, biodegradability, low toxicity,
emulsifying and demulsifying ability and antimicrobial activity (Chakrabarti, 2012). The major
distinctive features of each property of biosurfactant are discussed below.

- Surface and interface activity: Surfactant helps in reducing surface tension and the
interfacial tension.
- Temperature and pH tolerance: The biosurfactant production from extremophiles has
gained attention in last decades for their considered commercial interest.
- Biodegradability: Microbial derived compounds can be easily degraded when compared
to synthetic surfactants (Mohan et al., 2006) and are suitable for environmental applications
such as bioremediation/biosorption (Mulligan et al., 2001).
- Low toxicity: Although, very few literatures were available regarding the toxicity of
biosurfactants, they are generally considered low or non-toxic products and are appropriate
for pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food uses.
- Emulsion forming and emulsion breaking: Biosurfactants may act as emulsifiers or de-
emulsifiers.
- Antiadhesive agents: A biofilm can be described as a group of bacteria/other organic
matter that have colonized/accumulated on any surface (Hood and Zottola, 1995).

Silva et. al. (2014) state that in the petroleum industry, “biosurfactants have been applied
effectively for the exploration of heavy oil, offering advantages over their synthetic
counterparts throughout the entire petroleum processing chain (extraction, transportation and
storage)”.

A number of biotechnology-based processes have been proposed to increase oil production in

the current energy shortage (Sun et. al., 2011). Biosurfactants have applications in this realm,
as these natural compounds improve the mobilization of hydrocarbons, thereby enhancing the
recovery of crude oil from reservoirs in a process denominated microbial-enhanced oil recovery
(MEOR) (Perfumo et. al., 2010).
A promising technology involving the production of a stable oil-in-water emulsion that
facilitates oil mobility has been recently developed. Biosurfactant-based emulsifiers
(bioemulsifiers) are particularly suitable for this application (Silva et. al., 2015).

The use of microbial biosurfactants is an alternative cleaning procedure to decrease the

viscosity of sludge and oil deposits through the formation of an oil-in-water emulsion that
facilitates the pumping of waste. Moreover, this process allows the recovery of crude oil when
the emulsion is broken.

Since biosurfactants are not yet competitive with chemical surfactants from the economic
standpoint, a more thorough investigation of biosurfactant production from agro-industrial
waste is needed to reduce the production cost and allow the large-scale production of these
natural compounds. The versatility and efficiency demonstrated in the application of
biosurfactants in the oil production chain and the removal of hydrophobic contaminants make
these compounds promising biomolecules.

References

VIJAYAKUMAR (2015), “Biosurfactants-Types, Sources and Applications”, retrieved from:

http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jm.2015.181.192.

MULLIGAN (2005), “Environmental applications for biosurfactants”, retrieved from:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749104002702.

FURUI (2004), “A COMPREHENSIVE SKIN FACTOR MODEL FOR WELL

COMPLETIONS BASED ON FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATIONS”, recuperado de:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4139858/.

SILVA, et. al. (2014), “Applications of Biosurfactants in the Petroleum Industry and the
Remediation of Oil Spills”, retrieved from:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110062115000331.

Mulligan, C.N., R.N. Yong and B.F. Gibbs, 2001. Remediation technologies for metal-
contaminated soils and groundwater: An evaluation. Eng. Geol., 60: 193-207.

Rosenberg, E. and E.Z. Ron, 1999. High- and low-molecular-mass microbial surfactants.
Applied Microbiol. Biotechnol., 52: 154-162.

Chakrabarti, S., 2012. Bacterial biosurfactant: Characterization, antimicrobial and metal

remediation properties. Ph.D. Thesis, National Institute of Technology.

Mohan, P.K., G. Nakhla and E.K. Yanful, 2006. Biokinetics of biodegradation of surfactants
under aerobic, anoxic and anaerobic conditions. Water Res., 40: 533-540.

Hood, S.K. and E.A. Zottola, 1995. Biofilms in food processing. Food Control, 6: 9-18.

Al-Sulaimani H., et. al., 2011. Microbial biotechnology for enhancing oil recovery: Current
developments and future prospects. Biotechnol. p 147–158.

Sun S, et. al., 2011. Exopolysaccharide production by a genetically engineered Enterobacter

cloacae strain for microbial enhanced oil recovery. Bioresour Technol. 10:6153.