Title: Strategies toward commercial scale of biosurfactant production as potential substitute for it's chemically counterparts

Authors: Qomarudin Helmy; Edwan Kardena; Naoyuki Funamizu; Wisjnuprapto

Addresses: Water and Wastewater Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung-Indonesia, Ganesha 10 Bandung-West Java, Indonesia. ' Water and Wastewater Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung-Indonesia, Ganesha 10 Bandung-West Java, Indonesia. ' Laboratory of Engineering for Sustainable Sanitation, Division of Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita-13, Nishi-8, Kita-ku Sapporo 060-8628 Japan. ' Water and Wastewater Engineering Research Group, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung-Indonesia, Ganesha 10 Bandung-West Java, Indonesia

Abstract: In the past few decades natural emulsifiers/biosurfactants have been intensively studied for their ability as potential substitute for synthetic surfactant usage. Biosurfactants are valuable microbial amphipathic compounds with effective surface active and biological properties which are applicable to several industries and process materials. Several biosurfactants properties are low toxicity, higher biodegradability and ecological acceptability, also synthesised from wide range of raw materials. At present, biosurfactant are unable to compete with the synthetic surfactant due to their high production cost, specific functionality and production capacity to meet the need of intended applications. A considerable number of researches and studies have been published in order to eliminate the economical bottleneck of biosurfactants production process. This review describes alternatives strategies toward commercialisation of biosurfactants on a large scale that might be able to replace their chemical counterparts.

Keywords: biosurfactants; agroindustrial by-products; renewable resources; downstream process; commercial production; biotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBT.2011.042682

International Journal of Biotechnology, 2011 Vol.12 No.1/2, pp.66 - 86

Accepted: 06 Jun 2011
Published online: 30 Dec 2014 *

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