Читать книгу Biosurfactants for a Sustainable Future - Группа авторов - Страница 82

In their natural environment, the microbial population produces surface‐active agent in extremely minute quantities. Keeping in mind these microbial behaviors, researchers try to maximize the biomolecule yield and extract more and more concentrations of highly efficient biosurfactants.

In lowering the overall production cost of biosurfactants, a selection of suitable and efficient low‐cost raw materials is important. Raw materials with higher concentrations of carbohydrate, nitrogen, and lipids highlight the necessity for biosurfactants in commercial production. Utilization of agricultural wastes and byproduct materials that are available in abundant quantity along with the benefit of reduced environmental pollution chances serve as the best raw material for biosurfactants. In a study conducted by Ashby et al. [61] on the effect of raw materials on biosurfactant cost, the authors found that approximately 75% of the total operating cost accounted for 90.7 million kg of sophorolipid production biosurfactant was due to glucose and oleic acid as the raw materials. The sophorolipid production costs vary depending on the raw material used; for example, when glucose and high oleic sunflower oil were used, the cost was estimated to be $2.95/kg and when glucose and oleic acid were used, it was reported to be $2.54/kg. This estimated high cost of sophorolipids production can be reduced after replacing the costly substrate with a low‐cost industrial and agro‐based byproduct. In another study by Rodrigues et al. [62], authors utilized low‐cost materials for production of biosurfactants and the yields were increased by 1.5 times to that of the original cost and a 60–80% reduction in the medium cost was observed.