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Role of Biosurfactants in Promoting Biodegradation in Waste Treatment

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Advancements in Biosurfactants Research

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Abstract

Globally, societal demand and governmental regulations have increasingly required the refusing, reducing, reusing, recycling/repurposing and degrading of waste. Biodegradation and bioremediation are of utmost importance in achieving sustainable waste management as envisaged in the 5 Rs of waste management. Biodegradation is enhanced by bioremediation where nutrients and culture microorganisms are applied to treat waste without causing environmental degradation. Bioremediation ensures that the organic pollutants are transformed or mineralized into water and carbon dioxide. However, some recalcitrant and complex organic wastes such as PAHs are highly hydrophobic and have low bioavailability. Low bioavailability inhibits degradation due to insufficient access of the pollutants to the microorganisms. Therefore, microorganisms produce secondary metabolites such as biosurfactants that grow on water-insoluble substrates to enhance degradation. Biosurfactants are either produced as intracellular molecules bound on the cells or as extracellular substances. Cell-bound biosurfactants aid in the passage of substrates through the membrane to aid in biodegradation, whilst extracellular biosurfactants emulsify the substrates to increase their bioavailability. The application of biosurfactants increases the availability of the pollutants to the microbes when the surface area of the pollutants is increased due to the reduction in the interfacial and surface tension of the mixtures. This chapter discusses the unique role of biosurfactants in environmental protection and the clean-up of the environment through improved biodegradation of organic waste.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (https://www.nrf.ac.za/), University of Pretoria (https://www.up.ac.za/), Rand Water (https://www.randwater.co.za/Pages/Home.aspx) and the Water Research Commission (http://www.wrc.org.za/) as our funders and partners.

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  1. Water Utilization and Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Brian Gidudu & Evans M. N. Chirwa

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  1. Brian Gidudu
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Ruby Aslam

  2. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Mohammad Mobin

  3. Taibah University, Al-Madina, Saudi Arabia

    Jeenat Aslam

  4. Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

    Saman Zehra

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Gidudu, B., Chirwa, E.M.N. (2023). Role of Biosurfactants in Promoting Biodegradation in Waste Treatment. In: Aslam, R., Mobin, M., Aslam, J., Zehra, S. (eds) Advancements in Biosurfactants Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21682-4_14

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