Abstract:
Oil is a mixture of a large number of components, all of which are hydrophobic. The high molecular weight fraction, especially the polyaromatic hydrocarbons, has a low water solubility that significantly reduces their availability to bioremediating bacteria. The addition of biosurfactants is critical for increasing the bioavailablity of these hydrocarbons, and encouraging results were obtained with the use of high molecular weight biosurfactants.
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Ron, E., Rosenberg, E. (2010). Role of Biosurfactants. In: Timmis, K.N. (eds) Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_186
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_186
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77584-3
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