American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - 84
SpecialReport: Oil Field Chemistry
FIGURE 2
Chemical Structure of Two Types of Sophorolipids:
Lactonic (Left) and Acidic (Right)
in the formulation and delivery of production chemicals as well as products
for drilling and completion applications.
For example, they often are paired with
surfactants to obtain microemulsions for
flowback aids and to enhance oil recovery
from conventional and unconventional
reservoirs.
Surfactants
Surfactants, molecules that adhere to
interfaces (e.g., water-oil, liquid-gas,
and solid-liquid or solid-gas) and lower
their surface energy, have numerous applications in our everyday lives, including
foods, medicines, toiletries, cleaners,
automotive fluids, paints and coatings,
and processing aids. Their surface activity
is enabled by their molecular structure,
consisting of separated hydrophilic and
lipophilic domains.
The European Commission of Standardization (CEN) derived a classification
of bio-based surfactants based on their
bio-based content (i.e., percentage of carbon
atoms derived from renewable resources):
wholly bio-based (>95%), majority biobased (50%-94%), minority bio-based
(5%-49%), and nonbio-based (<5%). Biobased surfactants play a role in most market
sectors associated with surfactants: laundry
detergents, foods, cosmetics, personal care
products, pharmaceuticals, paints and coatings, oil and gas and environmental remediation, to name a few.
Significant public, scientific and political
focus has been given to the environmental
impacts caused by synthetic, hydrocarbon-based surfactants in the oil industry,
84 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER
such as oil dispersants used to clean up
offshore oil spills. These concerns center
on the surfactants' toxicity and long life
in the environment. Advances in biotechnology and the emergence of more stringent
guidelines on chemical use have led to
biosurfactants becoming a viable alternative
to chemical surfactants.
Biosurfactant research, development
and commercialization has accelerated dramatically. However, there is no clear definition of the term "biosurfactant" in literature. Often, it is used synonymously when
referring to amphiphilic secondary metabolites secreted by microorganisms or for
surfactants that are degradable naturally
or produced from renewable resources.
The most common biosurfactants in
the broadest sense are alkyl polyglucosides
(APGs) that are condensed chemically
by dehydration of sugar and fatty alcohols.
Additionally, there are other natural surfactants, such as saponins from vegetable
sources (e.g., extracts of the soapberry,
sapindus saponaria) or lecithins from animal sources (e.g., egg yolk lecithin) that
are often utilized in the food industry.
Microbial Surfactants
Microbial surfactants are biosurfactants
produced from microbial cultures. These
often are secreted by microorganisms
into the culture medium when grown on
hydrophobic carbon sources. The primary
reason for the interest in microbial biosurfactants is the idea of replacing or
complementing petroleum-based surfactants in industrial and consumer applications. This is mainly from their claimed
low ecotoxicity combined with their complete biological degradability and production from renewable products.
Although biosurfactants have been
known for several years to be promising
for use in bioremediation processes, industrial-scale production previously had
been limited by high raw-material and
processing costs and low manufacturing
output. Using advanced fermentation techniques developed by companies such as
Locus Bio-Energy Solutions, the production constraints have been addressed. In
fact, viable quantities of biosurfactants
now can be produced at costs comparable
with or even more attractive than traditional
synthetic surfactants.
Several studies show that biosurfactants can replace virtually any synthetic
surfactant and, moreover, introduce
unique, advantageous physicochemical
properties. For now, the primary oil field
applications for biosurfactants are enhancing oil recovery, remediating hydrocarbons and dispersing wax deposits,
applications that benefit from the biosurfactants' biodegradability, excellent
surface wettability and extremely low
critical micelle concentration.
In enhanced oil recovery applications,
advanced biosurfactants have delivered
production increases between 50% and
400%. The biosurfactants have proven
consistent enough that they have become
the first technology to be named New
Technology of the Year by Oil & Gas
Awards in both the Northeast and Texas
regions.
Microorganisms produce amphiphilic
metabolites displaying considerable structural diversity. Most biosurfactants are
low-molecular-weight microbial amphiphiles that consist of a hydrophilic
head group and a hydrophobic tail and
can include a diversity of subunits such
as sugars, fatty acids, amino acids and
carboxylic acid groups. Glycolipids comprise the greatest share of commerciallyavailable microbial surfactants. Besides
glycolipids, lipopeptides are another class
of biosurfactants of high commercial and
scientific interest.
Sophorolipids
Sophorolipids (SLs) are glycolipid
biosurfactants produced by certain yeast
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019
Contents
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - Intro
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - 1
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - 2
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - Contents
American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2019 - 4
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