Tween 80 surfactant-enhanced bioremediation: toward a solution to the soil contamination by hydrophobic organic compounds

Abstract

The occurrence of hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) in the soil has become a highly significant environmental issue. This problem has been exacerbated by the strong sorption of HOCs to the soils, which makes them unavailable for most remediation processes. More and more works show that surfactant-enhanced biological technologies offer a great potential to clear up HOCs-contaminated soils. This article is a critical review of HOCs removal from soils using Tween 80 (one of the mostly used nonionic surfactants) aided biological remediation technologies. The review begins with a discussion of the fundamentals of Tween 80-enhanced desorption of HOCs from contaminated soils, with special emphasis on the biotoxicity of Tween 80. Successful results obtained by Tween 80-enhanced microbial degradation and phytoremediation are documented and discussed in section 3 and section 4, respectively. Results show Tween 80-enhanced biotechnologies are promising for treating HOCs-contaminated soils. However, considering the fact that most of these scientific studies have only been conducted at the laboratory-scale, many improvements are required before these technologies can be scaled up to the full-scale level. Moreover, further research on mechanisms related to the interaction of Tween 80 with degrading microorganisms and the plants is in high demand.

The Status of Soil Microbiome as Affected by the Application of Phosphorus Biofertilizer: Fertilizer Enriched with Beneficial Bacterial Strains

“…It was observed that the utilization of polymers increased for the FA100 and FA60 treatments, as compared to the control treatment. According to Cheng et al [72] Tween 80 was found to be easily biodegradable by soil indigenous microorganisms. It is also worth mentioning that microbial based techniques in combination with the addition of Tween 80 were successful in soil bioremediation from hydrophobic organic compounds.…”

Self-nanoemulsfiying drug delivery system of bruceine D: a new approach for anti-ulcerative colitis

“…40,41 Tween 80, a polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate (average HLB value of 15), has been deemed as a low-cost and powerful emulsifier. [42][43][44] Cremophor RH40, a polyoxyl 40 hydrogenated castor oil (HLB value ranging 14-16), is an efficient emulsifier used to formulate several drugs such as paclitaxel and teniposide. 44 Pluronic F68 (Poloxamer 188), a PEO-PPO-PEO-triblock copolymer (HLB value of 29), is known to enhance the drug solubility and formulation stability in drug delivery system.…”

The Utility of Electrochemical Systems in Microbial Degradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Discourse, Diversity and Design

“…The β-cyclodextrin was also superior to glyceryl monostearate and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) during MFC remediation of soil TPHs (Li et al, 2018). At concentrations below the critical micelle concentration, the bioremediation of soil PAH was not significantly improved by Tween 80 (Cheng et al, 2018). The efficient micelles (hydrophobic interior vs. hydrophilic exterior) cannot be formed in the water due to the soil adsorption of part of Tween 80, thus the PAH solubility cannot be increased.…”