Surfactants are essential for a wide variety of biotechnological applications in areas of food, cosmetics, household cleaning products, agriculture, oil recovery, and environmental remediation. Despite great progress, there remain opportunities for research on metabolic engineering and bioproduction of microbial biosurfactants in terms of process efficiency and diversity of available compounds. Moreover, with the increasing demand for renewable, biodegradable ingredients, research must focus on improving the sustainability of surfactants and the shift away from sulfate-based and other non-renewable surfactants.

Biosurfactants are the surface-active biomolecules produced by microorganisms. Biosurfactants have gained commercial significance due to their unique properties, such as high surface activity, high specificity, low toxicity, tolerance to pH, temperature and ionic strength, biodegradability, excellent emulsifying and demulsifying ability, antimicrobial activity, ability to work under extreme conditions, and relative ease of preparation. Biosurfactants are used in several industries, including organic chemicals, petroleum, petrochemicals, mining, metallurgy (mainly bioleaching), agrochemicals, fertilizers, foods, beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and many others. The aim of this book is to highlight key aspects from basics to advanced concepts, classifications, production and applications in various fields such as agriculture, health, bioremediation, industries, pharmaceutical, oil recovery, environment, and nanotechnology. It also serves as an excellent and expansive literature on fermentation, recovery, genomics, and metagenomics of biosurfactant production. The book focuses on the biosurfactant production from bacteria, the diversity of biosurfactant producing bacteria, and industrial need of biosurfactant.

Microbial biosurfactants are green molecules with high application potential in environmental and industrial sectors. Chemical diversity of biosurfactants allows them versatility and broad range surfactants capability without compromising performance or economic viability. Biosurfactants are used as emulsifiers, dispersants, wetting agents, oil recovery agents, biopesticides, stabilizers, solubilizers, and bioremediation agents (pesticide, heavy metals and oil spill cleanup). This comprehensive book on biosurfactants and their environmental and industrial applications offers a broad spectrum of information on potential applications of biosurfactants in various fields and related technological developments.

Microbial biosurfactant compounds are a group of structurally diverse molecules produced by microorganisms, and are mainly categorized according to their chemical structure. The diversity of microbial biosurfactants makes them versatile and means that they offer a range of capabilities, while at the same time being economically sustainable. As such, they have potential applications in environmental processes, as well as in food, biomedicine and other industries. This book discusses innovative approaches and cutting-edge research that utilize the various properties of biosurfactants. Drawing on research from around the globe, it provides an up-to-date review of biosurfactant applications and their importance in fields such as medicine, gene therapy, immunotherapy, antimicrobial bioremediation and agriculture. It also discusses their anti-adhesive properties. The book will appeal to academics and researchers in the field of microbiology, as well as policymakers. It also serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences.

Microbially derived surfactants, called biosurfactants, provide a promising alternative to synthetic surfactants, displaying better availability and being generally nontoxic and biodegradable. Biosurfactants also have the advantage of diverse chemical properties and the potential to be less expensive. They demonstrate properties such as reducing surface tension, stabilizing emulsions, and promoting foaming. With many promising research results, a consolidated resource of biosurfactant knowledge is needed to build a framework for further development of applications. Biosurfactants: Research Trends and Applications fills this need, covering the latest research and development on relevant aspects of biological, biochemical, and physical processes and applications of biosurfactants. This book reviews current knowledge and the latest advances, strategies for improving production processes, and the status of biosynthetic and genetic regulation mechanisms for microbial surfactants. Chapters present research findings on specific biosurfactants, such as high surface activity rhamnolipids, yeast-derived sophorolipids, lipopeptides, and trehalose lipids that have potential for environmental, industrial, and medical uses. The book also describes sources and characteristics of marine microbial biosurfactants, biosurfactants made from food processing by-products and biosurfactants used in the food industry, and biosurfactants for green synthesis of nanoparticles. The text presents applications of biosurfactants in environmental industries and examines interactions between metals and various classes of biosurfactants and related metal remediation technologies. The final chapter reviews the state of the art of biosurfactants and their applications, and proposes approaches to overcome any challenges.

Providing comprehensive discussions of the physical and chemical properties, manufacture, and industrial uses of biosurfactants, this reference offers first-hand accounts of biosurfactant research of leading biotechnology laboratories. It introduces promising possible uses of biosurfactants in medicine, in environmental control, and for marine organisms. In contributions of more than 30 leading international experts, the text reviews the biosynthetic mechanisms for surfactants and their precursor molecules; explicates the biophysics of microbial surfactants and examines the production of immobilized biocatalysts, lipopeptides, and rhamnolipids. It also presents information on the economics of biosurfactants.