Biosurfactants for Oil Pollution Remediation

Abstract

Petroleum industries are considered as major energy resources, but as simultaneously producing large amounts of hydrocarbon wastes that are discharged into soil and water bodies. Environmental pollution due to exponential development of the petrochemical industries was a major concern in the twentieth century. Oil and oil products contamination, which belong to the carcinogenic and neurotoxic organic pollutants family, pose a severe threat to general health of public, choke aquatic life to death, and accumulate in soil and disturb the ecosystem. Numerous different technologies have been used for the removal of hydrocarbon/oil pollutants from polluted sites, such as physical, chemical, and biological methods. Conventional  physical and chemical methods can only immobilize at site or transfer’s contaminants from one medium to another and can even result in production of toxic by-products. Hence, petroleum oil and petroleum hydrocarbons cannot be entirely eradicated with physical and chemical methods. Thus, focus is being given to biological methods generally. Biosurfactants are considered as a promising alternative for the removal of oil pollutants due to their amphiphilic nature: they have the capability to reduce interfacial tension, disperse oil particles, high surface activity, lower toxicity, biodegradability and environmental friendliness, and are active under extreme conditions of salinity, pH and temperature. This chapter briefly discusses how microorganisms produce biosurfactant when they feed on insoluble substrates such as oil/petroleum waste. It also reveals the biosurfactant mode of action to remove petroleum waste and its derivatives (heavy metals, PAHs, etc.) from oil spills, cleaning pipelines, and containers. Biosurfactants emerge as potential biomolecules in petroleum industry waste bioremediation and need to be scaled up for the upcoming years.