Biological Surfactants vs. Polysorbates: Comparison of Their Emulsifier and Surfactant Properties

Abstract

In this work two biological surfactants, a cell-bound biosurfactant produced by Lactobacillus pentosus and a biosurfactant obtained from a fermented stream corn milling industry, were compared with two chemical surfactants (polysorbate 20 and polysorbate 80) in terms of surface tension reduction, critical micellar concentration (CMC), oil spreading and emulsifying capacity. Biological surfactants showed a similar ability to reduce the surface tension of water as polysorbates, which was in conformance with the results obtained in the drop collapse test. Regarding the ability to spread the oil on water, both biosurfactants produced similar results as polysorbates after 1 h. However, after 24 h, polysorbates and biosurfactant from corn stream were more effective than L. pentosus biosurfactant, producing greater free oil areas. Concerning the emulsifying activity, in terms of relative emulsion volume (EV), the biosurfactant produced from L. pentosus gave the best results (EV = 100 %), after 1 day of emulsion formation, keeping this value over 50 % after 15 days of emulsion formation; whereas polysorbates gave EV values lower than 50 %. The CMC values of the biosurfactant from corn stream and of polysorbates were closer in comparison with the CMC value of L. pentosus biosurfactant, observing that the characteristics and properties of the biosurfactant from corn stream are more similar to polysorbates than to L. pentosus biosurfactant. Thus, it could be speculated that biosurfactant from corn stream would be a good substitute for polysorbates.

Isolation and characterization of a microorganism that produces biosurfactants in corn steep water

“…Comparing both extracellular and cell-bound biosurfactants, it was noticed that cell-bound biosurfactants extracts from the isolated Bacillus strain, reduced in lower extend the surface tension of water in comparison with the extracellular biosurfactants. This condition also was noticed by other authors, observing in general that cell-bound biosurfactants produced a lower reduction of surface tension than extracellular biosurfactants (Rodríguez-López, Rincón-Fontán, Vecino, Cruz, & Moldes, 2019;Vecino et al, 2017).…”

Formulation of a Biodegradable Detergent for Cleaning Oily Residues Generated during Industrial Processes

“…The biosurfactant formulated with 0.2% potassium sorbate demonstrated considerable potential for application in the petroleum industry, where it could be successfully used as a commercial product to mobilize oil in marine environments. Two biological surfactants were compared with two chemical surfactants (polysorbate 20 and polysorbate 80) in terms of oil spreading and emulsifying capacity and produced similar results (Rodríguez-López et al, 2018). Plant derived surfactants also showed better surface-active properties than the synthetic sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and Tween 80 (Tmáková et al, 2015).…”

An Efficient Bioemulsifier-Producing Bacillus subtilis UCP 0146 Isolated from Mangrove Sediments

“…The use of agroindustrial residues as a low-cost raw material for the microbial production of bioemulsifiers is a well-explored strategy in the field of biotechnology to reduce production costs and put into practice current environmental policies [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”