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This comprehensive and critical review explores the synthesis and applications of carbohydrate‐based surfactants within the biorefinery concept, focusing on biobased sugar‐head molecules suitable for use across several manufacturing sectors, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, household products, detergents, and foods. The main focus relies on sustainable alternatives to conventional surfactants, which could reduce the final manufacturing carbon footprint of several industrial feedstocks and products. A thorough analysis of raw materials, highlighting the significance of feedstock sources, and the current biobased surfactants and rhamnolipid biosurfactants production trends, is presented. Key organic reactions for the production of sorbitan esters, sucrose esters, alkyl polyglycosides, and fatty acid glucamines, such as glycosidation, acylation, and etherification, as well as the production of rhamnolipids through fermentation are described. Given the scarce literature on the characterization of these surfactant types within the hydrophilic–lipophilic deviation (HLD) framework, the surfactant contribution parameter (SCP) in the HLD equation for sugar‐head surfactants is critically assessed. The economic landscape is also discussed, noting the significant growth in the biobased surfactants and biosurfactant market, driven by environmental awareness and regulatory changes, with projections indicating a substantial market increase in the forthcoming years. Finally, the promising potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in developing customized surfactant molecules, with optimized properties for targeted applications, is emphasized as a promising avenue for future research.
This comprehensive and critical review explores the synthesis and applications of carbohydrate‐based surfactants within the biorefinery concept, focusing on biobased sugar‐head molecules suitable for use across several manufacturing sectors, including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, household products, detergents, and foods. The main focus relies on sustainable alternatives to conventional surfactants, which could reduce the final manufacturing carbon footprint of several industrial feedstocks and products. A thorough analysis of raw materials, highlighting the significance of feedstock sources, and the current biobased surfactants and rhamnolipid biosurfactants production trends, is presented. Key organic reactions for the production of sorbitan esters, sucrose esters, alkyl polyglycosides, and fatty acid glucamines, such as glycosidation, acylation, and etherification, as well as the production of rhamnolipids through fermentation are described. Given the scarce literature on the characterization of these surfactant types within the hydrophilic–lipophilic deviation (HLD) framework, the surfactant contribution parameter (SCP) in the HLD equation for sugar‐head surfactants is critically assessed. The economic landscape is also discussed, noting the significant growth in the biobased surfactants and biosurfactant market, driven by environmental awareness and regulatory changes, with projections indicating a substantial market increase in the forthcoming years. Finally, the promising potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in developing customized surfactant molecules, with optimized properties for targeted applications, is emphasized as a promising avenue for future research.
Biosurfactants have been profiled as a sustainable replacement for chemical-based surfactants since these bio-based molecules have higher biodegradability. Few research papers have focused on assessing biosurfactant production to elucidate potential bottlenecks. This research aims to assess the techno-economic and environmental performance of surfactin production in a potential scale of 65m3, considering different product yields and involving the European energy crisis of 2021–2022. The conceptual design, simulation, techno-economic, and environmental assessments were done by applying process engineering concepts and software tools such as Aspen Plus v.9.0 and SimaPro v.8.3.3. The results demonstrated the high economic potential of surfactin production since the higher values in the market offset the low fermentation yields, low recovery efficiency, and high capital investment. The sensitivity analysis of the economic assessment elucidated a minimum surfactin selling price between 29 and 31 USD/kg of surfactin, while a minimum processing scale for economic feasibility between 4 and 5 kg/h is needed to reach an equilibrium point. The environmental performance must be improved since the carbon footprint was 43 kg CO2eq/kg of surfactin. The downstream processing and energy demand are the main bottlenecks since these aspects contribute to 63 and 25% of the total emissions. The fermentation process and downstream process are key factors for future optimization and research.
Biosurfactants have garnered increased attention lately due to their superiority of their properties over fossil-derived counterparts. While the cost of production remains a significant hurdle to surpass synthetic surfactants, biosurfactants have been anticipated to gain a larger market share in the coming decades. Among these, glycolipids, a type of low-molecular-weight biosurfactant, stand out for their efficacy in reducing surface and interfacial tension, which made them highly sought-after for various surfactant-related applications. Glycolipids are composed of hydrophilic carbohydrate moieties linked to hydrophobic fatty acid chains through ester bonds that mainly include rhamnolipids, trehalose lipids, sophorolipids, and mannosylerythritol lipids. This review highlights the current landscape of glycolipids and covers specific glycolipid productivity and the diverse range of products found in the global market. Applications such as bioremediation, food processing, petroleum refining, biomedical uses, and increasing agriculture output have been discussed. Additionally, the latest advancements in production cost reduction for glycolipid and the challenges of utilizing second-generation feedstocks for sustainable production are also thoroughly examined. Overall, this review proposes a balance between environmental advantages, economic viability, and societal benefits through the optimized integration of secondary feedstocks in biosurfactant production.
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