Biosurfactants and Their Applications in the Oil and Gas Industry: Current State of Knowledge and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Surfactants are a group of amphiphilic chemical compounds (i.e., having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains) that form an indispensable component in almost every sector of modern industry. Their significance is evidenced from the enormous volumes that are used and wide diversity of applications they are used in, ranging from food and beverage, agriculture, public health, healthcare/medicine, textiles, and bioremediation. A major drive in recent decades has been toward the discovery of surfactants from biological/natural sources—namely bio-surfactants—as most surfactants that are used today for industrial applications are synthetically-manufactured via organo-chemical synthesis using petrochemicals as precursors. This is problematic, not only because they are derived from non-renewable resources, but also because of their environmental incompatibility and potential toxicological effects to humans and other organisms. This is timely as one of today's key challenges is to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) and to move toward using renewable and sustainable sources. Considering the enormous genetic diversity that microorganisms possess, they offer considerable promise in producing novel types of biosurfactants for replacing those that are produced from organo-chemical synthesis, and the marine environment offers enormous potential in this respect. In this review, we begin with an overview of the different types of microbial-produced biosurfactants and their applications. The remainder of this review discusses the current state of knowledge and trends in the usage of biosurfactants by the Oil and Gas industry for enhancing oil recovery from exhausted oil fields and as dispersants for combatting oil spills.

Production, Characterization and Commercial Formulation of a Biosurfactant from Candida tropicalis UCP0996 and Its Application in Decontamination of Petroleum Pollutants

“…The release of oil and by-products into the environment is a major cause of global pollution and has become a focus of great concern in both industrialized and developing countries, since oil pollution can have dramatic damaging effects on the environment and to the resident organisms. The main source of hydrocarbons in the oceans comes from routine ship washing operations, natural oil spills on the seabed, and accidents during oil exploration and transportation [1,2].…”

“…Biosurfactants are amphipathic molecules with hydrophobic and hydrophilic moieties that partition between phases with different polarities (oil/water and air/water), reducing the surface tension, and thus increasing the contact area of hydrocarbons, enhancing bioavailability, and biodegradation of such compounds [7]. The considerable interest in these compounds is related to their properties, as biodegradability, production from renewable substrates, low toxicity, biocompatibility, diversity for chemical structure and properties, effectiveness even at extreme conditions of temperature, pH, and salinity [2].…”

Glycerol waste to value added products and its potential applications

“…The intracellular accumulation of 56% PHA in Halomonas sp. SA8, the soil bacteria of Finnish soils and sediments identified by fermentation with crude glycerol by a mineral medium [ 142 ]. Bacillus thuringiensis EGU45 produces 1.5–3.5 g/L PHA using crude glycerol and nutrient broth [ 143 ].…”

A Review on Biosurfactant Applications in the Petroleum Industry

“…Biosurfactants are a group of amphiphilic compounds with antiviral, hemolytic, insecticidal, and antimicrobial biological activities. ey are applicable in numerous industries, including foods, cleaning products, pharmacology (drug solvents), cosmetics, pesticides, textiles, fungicides on different organic surfaces, medicine, and oil and gas fields as essential biotechnology products [7,79]. e growing interest in biosurfactants is because of their low environmental impacts, low toxicity, and biodegradability [80].…”

“…Rising universal energy demands, in addition to limited fossil fuel resources across the world, require a robust response to energy supply. Development and improvement of the oil recovery technique yield from the existing reservoirs; furthermore, identifying alternative resources is the best way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in the future [6][7][8][9].…”