Isolation of biosurfactant-producing bacteria : effect of carbon source and activity of oil recovery

Abstract

Biosurfactants are gaining more and more attention and have already been utilized for a number of important industrial applications due to their biodegradability, capability to be produced from renewable resources, good functionality under extreme conditions (particularly those pertaining tertiary crude-oil recovery), and good comatibity with human beings. From this research, a biosurfactant solution produced from Bacillus Subtilis PT4, isolated from an oil sludge, was studied for its properties. The surface tension of nutrient broth was reduced to 26.4 mN/m when PT4 was incubated with 2% palm oil at 37C, 51 hours, as compared to an incubation time of 36 hours with sludge oil, suggesting that PT4 is more compatible with sludge oil than with palm oil. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the produced biosurfactants, after cultivation for 51 hours, was found to be 25 mg/1, corresponding to a minimum surface tension of 26.4 mN/m. From the oil recovery results, the efficiency of the produced biosurfactants was 63.56% for motor oil and 59.10% for palm oil.

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Identifiers

DOI

10.58837/chula.the.2007.2174

Journal

Unknown journal

Year

2007