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Foam mitigation and exploitation in biosurfactant production

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Abstract

Biosurfactants could potentially outperform traditional surfactants in many applications whilst being more sustainable to source, manufacture, use and dispose of. However, currently available fermentation production methods are too inefficient to manufacture biosurfactants for these high volume markets. Foaming in an inherent issue with biosurfactant production and adds significantly to the cost of production using traditional unit operations. This review illustrates how the application of process engineering has enabled nuisance foaming to be transformed into a cost saving feature of the production system. The scope of biosurfactants and their application is discussed and the fundamentals of foam generation and control are reviewed. The range of specific phenomena associated with the interaction of foams with bioproducts is assessed. Finally, recent work which has aimed at taking advantage of some of these phenomena in order to intensify the biosurfactant production process is discussed in detail.

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Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge support through an EPSRC PhD Plus award which facilitated this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The Mill, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    J. B. Winterburn & P. J. Martin

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  1. J. B. Winterburn
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  2. P. J. Martin
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Correspondence to P. J. Martin.

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Winterburn, J.B., Martin, P.J. Foam mitigation and exploitation in biosurfactant production. Biotechnol Lett 34, 187–195 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-011-0782-6

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