Biosurfactants: Promising Molecules for Petroleum Biotechnology Advances

Abstract

The growing global demand for sustainable technologies that improves the efficiency of petrochemical processes in the oil industry has driven advances in petroleum biotechnology in recent years. Petroleum industry uses substantial amounts of petrochemical-based synthetic surfactants in its activities as mobilizing agents to increase the availability or recovery of hydrocarbons as well as many other applications related to extraction, treatment, cleaning, and transportation. However, biosurfactants have several potential applications for use across the oil processing chain and in the formulations of petrochemical products such as emulsifying/demulsifying agents, anticorrosive, biocides for sulfate-reducing bacteria, fuel formulation, extraction of bitumen from tar sands, and many other innovative applications. Due to their versatility and proven efficiency, biosurfactants are often presented as valuable versatile tools that can transform and modernize petroleum biotechnology in an attempt to provide a true picture of state of the art and directions or use in the oil industry. We believe that biosurfactants are going to have a significant role in many future applications in the oil industries and in this review therefore, we highlight recent important relevant applications, patents disclosures and potential future applications for biosurfactants in petroleum and related industries.

Detection and Quantification of Sulfate-Reducing and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-Degrading Bacteria in Oilfield Using Functional Markers and Quantitative PCR

“…The soil and sludge samples, in contrary to the injection water samples, contained higher numbers of the PAH-degrading nahA gene and less numbers of the SRB apsA gene. The aerobic conditions, the limitation of the terminal electron acceptor SO 4 and the proper electron donors in the soil samples, compared with the injection water, might explain the low number of SRB. Generally, the SRB in soil and sludge samples collected from the GOSP might have been originated due to contamination by the produced water or crude oil.…”

“…It exploits the astonishing metabolic capabilities of a variety of dedicated microorganisms [1,2]. The latter include sulfate-reducers, hydrocarbon-degrading/transforming, biosurfactants-producing bacteria, etc [3,4]. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) constitute a group of anaerobic microbes, which utilize sulfate as a terminal electron acceptor for the degradation of organic compounds.…”

Evaluating the potential of natural surfactants in the petroleum industry: the case of hydrophobins

“…They are usually classified into low molecular weight compounds (lipopeptides, glycolipids) and high molecular weight polymers [6]. Thanks to their unique properties, such as low toxicity, functionality under extreme conditions, biodegradable nature, and specific action, biosurfactants have several potential applications in the petroleum industry, mainly for the so-called microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) [7][8][9]. Up to now, a major role in MEOR techniques was played by rhamnolipid, sophorolipid, glycolipid and lipopeptide biosurfactants [7].…”

“…Thanks to their unique properties, such as low toxicity, functionality under extreme conditions, biodegradable nature, and specific action, biosurfactants have several potential applications in the petroleum industry, mainly for the so-called microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) [7][8][9]. Up to now, a major role in MEOR techniques was played by rhamnolipid, sophorolipid, glycolipid and lipopeptide biosurfactants [7]. Three main strategies can be adopted for using biosurfactants in EOR processes or mobilization of heavy oils: (i) direct injection of biosurfactant-producing microorganisms into the reservoir through the well, followed by their in situ multiplication through the reservoir rocks; (ii) ex situ injection of selected nutrients into a reservoir, to stimulate the growth of biosurfactant-producing microorganisms; (iii) external production of biosurfactants and their subsequent injection into the reservoir.…”

Response Surface Methodology for Optimizing the Production of Biosurfactant by Candida tropicalis on Industrial Waste Substrates

“…Dispersion is a process by which a hydrocarbon is dispersed into the aqueous phase as very small emulsions. Dispersion is related to both the interfacial tension and surfactant concentration, and differs from displacement in that displacement process is only related to the interfacial tension between aqueous and hydrophobic phases and no emulsion formation (Almeida et al, 2016). In this study, the biosurfactant from C. tropicalis UCP0996 was tested as an oil dispersant in seawater.…”