Author(s)

I.M. Banat

Abstract

Biosurfactant are environmental friendly, effective and stable compounds with many advantages over synthetic surfactants. Their use is gaining prominence in several industrial applications due to their broad capabilities which includes emulsification, wetting, foaming, solubilisation and viscosity reduction. Their main types are glycolipids in which carbohydrates are attached to a long-chain aliphatic acids. Other more complex types such as lipopeptides, lipoproteins and heteropolysaccharides also exist. The use of biosurfactants for oil spills cleanup or enhanced oil recovery involves a reduction of the oil-water interfacial tension leading to its emulsification. Stable emulsions are formed because biosurfactants lowers interfacial tension between interfaces and oil. Such an effect can be achieved throug

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