Green Surfactants (Biosurfactants): A Petroleum-Free Substitute for Sustainability─Comparison, Applications, Market, and Future Prospects

Abstract

Surfactants are a group of amphiphilic molecules (i.e., having both hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains) that are a vital part of nearly every contemporary industrial process such as in agriculture, medicine, personal care, food, and petroleum. In general surfactants can be derived from (i) petroleum-based sources or (ii) microbial/plant origins. Petroleum-based surfactants are obvious results from petroleum products, which lead to petroleum pollution and thus pose severe problems to the environment leading to various ecological damages. Thus, newer techniques have been suggested for deriving surfactant molecules and maintaining environmental sustainability. Biosurfactants are surfactants of microbial or plant origins and offer much added advantages such as high biodegradability, lesser toxicity, ease of raw material availability, and easy applicability. Thus, they are also termed "green surfactants". In this regard, this review focused on the advantages of biosurfactants over the synthetic surfactants produced from petroleum-based products along with their potential applications in different industries. We also provided their market aspects and future directions that can be considered with selections of biosurfactants. This would open up new avenues for surfactant research by overcoming the existing bottlenecks in this field.

Microbial biosurfactant based nanoemulsions and their applications: A review

“…mBS therefore are produced entirely by sustainable non-chemical methods and exhibit diverse chemical structures. They display low toxicity, biocompatibility, good stability, and diverse bioactivities (Nagtode et al, 2023) and are therefore desirable for preparing NE.…”

“…Surfactants can be of three types: nonionic, ionic (cationic and anionic) and zwitterionic or amphoteric. Nonionic surfactants comprise fatty alcohol ethoxylates, glycerol esters, and fatty acid esters; cationic surfactants encompass quaternary ammonium compounds or amines; anionic surfactants consist of carboxylates, sulfates, sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids, sulfonates, and phosphates; and zwitterionic surfactants has a combination of cationic and anionic moieties including carboxylic acids and quaternary ammonium ions (Nagtode et al, 2023). The majority of conventional surfactants reported in the literature involve nonionic surfactants, as evidenced by Table 1.…”

Self-assembly mechanism, physicochemical analyses and application performance investigations of branched alkyl glycosides with alcohol ether carboxylic acids of varied epoxide numbers

“…Many of these applications involve the use of mixtures of different surfactants to achieve the desired properties. 5–8 When surfactant molecules in micelles are combined, they give rise to new structures that lead to synergistic effects, often determining the stability of micelles and influencing their performance in areas such as foaming, wetting, and thickening. 9–15…”

Design of an Eco-Friendly Model for the Formation of Winsor III (Ultralow IFT) through Smart Injection of Biosurfactants in Oil Reservoirs

“…Biosurfactants compared to chemical surfactants include less toxicity, biodegradability, great structural diversity, and good stability in harsh environmental conditions. , For this reason, in this research, rhamnolipid as one of the most powerful biosurfactants is used to study the microemulsions phase behavior to achieve Winsor III in EOR. Biosurfactants are amphiphilic compounds that decrease IFT between two polar and nonpolar phases and are produced by several microorganisms such as Candida Antarctica, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. − …”