Recent Advances in Sustainable Production and Application of Biosurfactants in Brazil and Latin America

Abstract

Biosurfactants are molecules with emulsifying and surface-active properties that have environmental and industrial applications in the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetic, and cleaning industries. These biomolecules are a prominent topic for research and development since they are possible replacements for synthetic surfactants, which are still produced using nonrenewable feedstock. Biosurfactants also present performance advantages when compared to synthetic surfactants, such as increased degradability, higher stability at different conditions (pH, salinity, and temperature) and lower toxicity. Biosurfactants can be produced through sustainable processes using agro-industrial residues as substrates. However, these biomolecules are not yet able to compete economically with synthetic surfactants, which are cheaper and more readily available. Therefore, it is necessary to search for new technologies that will enable large-scale production of these compounds through the discovery of new producing microorganisms, low-cost and renewable substrates, and alternative processes for the biotechnological production of biosurfactants. In this context, Latin America has outstanding potential because of its huge biodiversity and its many agro-industrial residues that can be used as substrates for biosurfactant production. Brazil is the leader among Latin American countries in biosurfactant research, with the highest number of papers and patents. The aim of this article is to review recent advances in sustainable production and application of biosurfactants in Brazil and Latin America, and to disclose the importance of green chemistry in the context of sustainable development in the region.

Introduction

The development of technologies that help clean hazardous contaminants is greatly influenced by increased global awareness of issues regarding environmental pollution. The demand for using alternative resources to minimize environmental impacts and comply with new environmental control laws has also pushed technology towards sustainable biotechnological processes.¹

The search for new biotechnological processes has generated considerable interest in recent years due to their low toxicity, biodegradability, and diversity, which makes them superior to some of their counterparts derived from petrochemicals.² In this context, biomolecules that can be produced through biotechnological processes using renewable resources—especially agro-industrial residues—as substrate, are promising.¹

Biosurfactants are a diverse group of surface-active compounds synthesized by microorganisms.³ These biomolecules have attracted increasing interest as possible replacements for synthetic surfactants as they are suitable for various applications, including bioremediation, biodegradation, oil recovery, food, and pharmaceutical production processes, among many other industrial sectors.^1,4
–6

Biosurfactants are amphiphilic molecules with groups of polar and nonpolar components. Based on the nature of the polar groups, biosurfactants are classified as glycolipids, lipopeptides/lipoproteins, polymerics, fatty acids, neutral lipids, phospholipids, and particulates. The surface-active and/or -emulsifying properties of a biosurfactant are determined by the location and size of its polar and nonpolar functional groups. Consequently, the practical application of a biosurfactant in various fields depends solely on its structure.⁷

Biosurfactants present many advantages when compared to their chemical counterparts, since they have higher biodegradability and lower toxicity.⁸ These biomolecules can also be produced under milder conditions of temperature and pressure and present increased effectiveness and resistance to variation in environmental conditions.^9,10 Biosurfactants are good emulsifying agents and can be produced from renewable raw materials.^8,11,12

Despite growing recognition of the advantages of biosurfactants, their production is not yet able to compete economically with chemical surfactant production. Biosurfactants have high production costs, mainly due to the use of expensive substrates, inefficient methods of bioprocessing, low productivity of microbial strains, and the high cost of downstream techniques.¹ This situation reinforces the need for new strategies that will enable large-scale biosurfactant production through biotechnological processes. Strategies for reducing the cost of production of biosurfactants are mainly based on selecting and engineering new microorganisms capable of increased production; designing new processes that will reduce operating costs and capital deployment; and using novel low-cost raw materials for production.¹³

Latin America is a hotspot for biosurfactant research since it has rich biodiversity, which provides increased potential to discover novel microorganisms capable of producing biosurfactants at lower cost and with higher productivity. The region also produces a large amount of agro-industrial residues, which can be used as feedstock for the production of these important biomolecules.¹⁴ Currently, research on biosurfactants in Latin America is focused on searching for new producing microorganisms, new production processes, and novel applications of these biomolecules. Recent advances in biosurfactant research in Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, and Uruguay, are covered here in the context of sustainable development and green chemistry.

Green Chemistry and Sustainable Development

The world is currently undergoing a process of change during which sustainable development must be achieved to avoid exhausting its natural resources. The fundamental principles that should guide sustainable development were outlined in Agenda 21, a program of environmental action developed during the Rio +20 Conference in 1992.¹⁵ Latin America is one of the most relevant regions in the world economy, as it contains 20% of the world's natural resources and has favorable agroclimatic resources for agricultural development. Also, Latin America's biodiversity presents an opportunity for the development of biotechnological processes to create value and help develop the region.

However, sustainable development in Latin America is difficult to achieve, since the region still suffers from social inequality and is heavily dependent on the exploitation of natural resources for economic development.¹⁶ Despite being a resource-rich region, Latin America still suffers from a lack of industrialization and a market based on commodity trading instead of manufactured products.¹⁷ However, industrialization is quickly reaching Latin America, and the chemical industry is currently one of the most important sectors serving among the largest markets in this region. Some problems in the chemical industry, however, are holding back sustainable development, since base chemicals are produced mainly from oil and other nonrenewable feedstock.¹⁸ In this context, green or sustainable chemistry plays an important role in sustainable development within the chemical industry, since it allows for better conservation of resources through the use of renewable feedstocks and the development of more effective and environmentally benign processes.¹⁹ The processes and products obtained from green chemistry may include the use of renewable or recycled feedstock, more energy efficient processes, and less use of toxic compounds capable of bioaccumulation in the environment.²⁰

Sustainable development is important for the entire world, but has special significance for developing regions such as Latin America. In 2003, the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development (UNIDO) stated that biotechnology could bring sustainable development to the Latin American and Caribbean regions. These regions have rich biodiversity, which provides a range of potential applications for new technologies, including their utilization for further expanding value creation from biodiversity.²¹ This assessment is not a reality yet, but new biotechnologies under research could have a positive impact on regional development.²²

Biosurfactants are important molecules that have recently gained increased attention in the context of sustainable development and green chemistry. Biosurfactants can be produced from renewable feedstock and are biodegradable, thus adhering to the main principles of green chemistry.²³ Exploitation of the biodiversity in Latin America to develop biosurfactants and other new products and technologies can enhance the region's autonomy, thus reducing the need for many imports. The bioprocesses being developed to produce biosurfactants are clean, are based on renewable feedstocks, and use low amounts of energy thus allowing technological development of the region without having a serious impact on the environment.²⁴

Production and Applications of Sustainable Biosurfactants

Latin American countries cover an area of 20.5 million km², or 15.2% of the world's total land surface. They have a broad range of climates and biodiverse forests that have not yet been fully explored. These countries also have a diversified agro-industry that generates large quantities of residues and byproducts.²⁵ Thus, Latin America presents opportunities for discovering new microorganisms and applying cheap and readily available raw materials as feedstock for biosurfactant production.

Many bioprospecting studies, aiming to take advantage of Latin America's biodiversity, have searched for new microorganisms from various habitats that are able to produce biosurfactants (Table 1).^{26

–41} These studies have mainly focused on selecting bacteria that are able to produce biosurfactants and have been isolated from areas contaminated with nonpolar compounds, such as oil. Some of the biosurfactants produced by these microorganisms were capable of reducing the surface tension of water from 72 mN/m to less than 36 mN/m. These results are comparable to the surface-active properties of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), a known synthetic surfactant.⁴² Other studies, instead of quantifying the surface-active properties of biosurfactants to screen new microorganisms able to produce these biomolecules, have focused on quantifying their emulsification activity.^26

–30

Table 1.

Bioprospecting Studies of Biosurfactant-Producing Microorganisms in Latin America

ISOLATE	AREA	MICROORGANISM WITH BEST RESULTS	SURFACE ACTIVITY	REFERENCE
Bacterial and archaeal representatives	Central Argentinean halophilic environments (salterns are neutral hypersaline basins)	Haloarcula genus	Qualitative result (emulsifying assays)	26
Bacterial strains	Agricultural area of Acatzingo, Puebla, Mexico	Klebsiella pneumoniae and Serratia marcescens	Semi-quantitative test (emulsification activity)	27
Pseudomonas strains	Wastewater from an oil refinery industry located in La Plata city, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Pseudomonas sp. KA	Values between 60 and 65 mN/m	28
Indigenous microbial community	Tropical soil with petrochemical contamination (Brazilian land farm)	Cellulosimicroubium cellulans, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Achromatium oxaliferum	Qualitative result (drop-collapse)	29
Bacterial strains	Area exposed to chronic contamination in Samborombón Bay, Argentina	Pseudomonas sp.	Semi-quantitative test (emulsification activity)	30
Marine bacterial isolates	Venezuelan Atlantic Front	Not identified	Values between 41.7 and 33.9 mN/m	31
Bacterial isolates	Soil contaminated with diesel (Brazil)	genera Pseudomonas and Bacillus	39 mN/m and 34 mN/m	32
Bacterial strains	Rhizospheric soils of plants in the semi-arid region (Brazil)	genus Pseudomonas	33 mN/m	33
Mucoralean fungus	Caatinga soil in the northeast of Brazil	Cunninghamella echinulata	36 mN/m	34
Bacteria in high salt conditions	Uncontaminated soils on the Brazilian oceanic island Trindade	genus Bacillus	26.10 and 26.7 mN/m	35
Bacillus strains	Wastewater treatment plant, Ceará (Brazil)	Bacillus subtilis	28.8 ± 0.0 and 27.1 ± 0.1 mN/m	36
Bacterial strains	Environmental samples contaminated with crude oil and/or petroleum derivatives (Brazil)	Bacillus amyloliquefaciens	28.5 mN/m	37
Bacterial isolates associated with marine invertebrates	North coast of São Paulo State, Brazil	Brevibacterium luteolum	27 mN/m	38
Bacterial strains	Bacterial strains were isolated from soil contaminated with either combust oleo (Fuel Oil No. 6) or used mobile oil (Mexico)	Pseudomonas	26 mN/m	39
Bacterial strains	Water and sediment of two cenotes in the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico)	Not identified	Qualitative result (drop-collapse and oil spreading techniques)	40
Fungi, yeasts, and bacterial (majority) strains; only bacteria used for screening	Terrestrial (soil and water) and marine (sediment and water) samples were collected at three Brazilian sites historically contaminated by crude oil or its byproducts	Not identified	33.4 ± 2.0 to 41.8 ± 2.3 mN/m	41

Biosurfactants are produced by bacteria, yeasts, and filamentous fungi.⁴³ Bacterial biosurfactants have been the most studied. They are mainly derived from the Pseudomonas (glycolipid: rhamnolipids) and Bacillus genera (lipopeptide: surfactin), and their structure, production kinetics, and applications have been thoroughly studied.^44
–46 Fungi for biosurfactant production have still not been widely explored, though some yeasts, such as Candida lipolytica, Candida glabrata, Candida sphaerica, Yarrowia lipolytica, and Torulopsis bombicola, have been reported to be biosurfactant producers (glycolipids).^43,47,48 Some filamentous fungi are also known to be biosurfactant producers, including Aspergillus fumigatus and Cunninghamella echinulata. To date, the potential of using filamentous fungi for biosurfactant production has been less well explored than that of bacteria and yeasts.^34,49,50

Yeasts are microorganisms that are usually regarded as safe and non-pathogenic, thus possessing Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS) status from the United States Food and Drug Administration. This increases the possibility of applying yeast to biosurfactant production in industries that require nonpathogenic microorganisms, such as the pharmaceutical and food industries.^43,51

The physiological role of biosurfactants is to support cell growth by facilitating the transport and translocation of insoluble substrates through cell membranes, thus conferring properties of adhesion/release from cell surfaces and also facilitating colonization and survival in harsh environments. Biosurfactants also possess antimicrobial activity, which is a clear competitive advantage for microorganisms able to produce these biomolecules.^3,51 Therefore, many studies have explored contaminated areas for bioprospecting of biosurfactant-producing microorganisms. Environments with diverse conditions–such as salinity, pH, and temperature–are explored when searching for novel biosurfactant-producing organisms and for biomolecules that could have enhanced stability in various biotechnological and environmental processes.^10,26

Genetic engineering is being applied to improve biosurfactant-producing strains of microorganisms. A Brazilian research group reported the heterologous expression of rhamnolipids in an engineered strain of Burkhouderia kururiensis, resulting in a greater than 600% increase in production compared to the wild-type strain.⁵² This result shows the potential of applying molecular biology to improve the yield of biosurfactant production.⁵³

A significant advantage of biosurfactants over synthetic surfactants is the possibility of production using less expensive substrates, usually industrial or agro-industrial wastes, which would reduce production costs and make it economically feasible. The use of agro-industrial wastes is also environmentally friendly, since it eliminates problems related to storage, treatment, and disposal of these residues.

The employment of industrial and agro-industrial byproducts in biotechnological processes helps to reduce the final price of the products since the cost of substrates is estimated to be about 10–30% of the total process cost.⁵⁴ Reducing the costs of producing biosurfactants is essential to making their production economically feasible at large scale. Various abundant and relatively cheap substrates, such as byproducts from vegetal oil production, from the dairy, meat, and sugar industries, and waste oil from food drying have been explored for biosurfactant production.¹ Another important by-product that has been used for the production of biosurfactants is residual glycerol from the biodiesel industry.⁵⁵ Some research projects in Latin America have investigated the use of renewable substrates that are widely available in the region ( Table 2 ).^{36,43,47
–49,56

–70}

Table 2.

Renewable Substrates for Sustainable Production of Biosurfactants by Different Microorganisms

MICROORGANISM	RENEWABLE SUBSTRATE	REFERENCE
Bacillus strains	Glycerol from biodiesel	36
Yarrowia lipolytica	Crude glycerol and clarified cashew apple juice	43
Candida sphaerica	Nut oil refinery residue and corn steep liquor	47
Candida sphaerica	Residue from a soy oil refinery and corn steep liquor	48
Aspergillus fumigatus	Husk and rice bran	49
Bacillus subtilis	Cassava wastewater	56
-	Dairy industry waste	57
Pseudomonas sp.	Used cooking oil	58
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Sugarcane bagasse and glycerol	59
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Sugarcane bagasse and corn bran	60
Candida lipolytica	Animal fat and corn steep liquor	61
Pseudomonas cepacia	Soybean waste frying oil and corn steep liquor	62
Candida sphaerica	Ground-nut oil refinery residue and corn steep liquor	63
Lactobacillus plantarum	Residual cellulose films	64
Bacillus subtilis	Sugar cane vinasse	65
Bacillus pumilus	Vinasse and waste frying oil	66
Bacillus pumilus	Okara and sugarcane bagasse	67
Bacillus subtilis	Glycerol, sunflower oil, cheese whey, and cashew apple juice	68
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Soybean oil waste	69
Pantoea sp.	Pineapple peel residue, vegetable fat, and corn steep liquor	70

Soluble or insoluble substrates, or a combination of both, can be used for biosurfactant production. Depending on the microorganism employed and its metabolism, different types of substrate may result in better biosurfactant yields. Generally, nonpolar substrates act as inducing agents for the production of biosurfactants.⁴³

New proposals for using renewable resources to produce lower-cost biosurfactants hold great promise. While the economic advantages are important, environmental concerns could also lead to increased investment in research and development (R&D) of new, alternative technologies for identifying novel products and processes that will cause less impact on the environment. Sustainable development may be achieved through processes capable of using less energy, generating fewer pollutants, and producing biodegradable compounds and byproducts.

It is important to study the optimal composition of the growth medium and the most favorable conditions for conducting the fermentation process in order to obtain higher yields in biosurfactant production. Bioprocessing alternatives for biosurfactant production are submerged fermentation or solid-state fermentation (SSF) using various solid agro-industrial residues.⁴⁹ SSF has the potential to enable the production of biosurfactants, as it is an alternative to avoid the formation of foam during the fermentation process—a limiting factor in the production of biosurfactants using submerged fermentation.⁷¹ The use of bacteria and filamentous fungi have also been reported for SSF production of biosurfactants.^49,60 However, biosurfactant production through SSF still presents inherent difficulties, as large-scale production is impaired by problems related to mass and heat transfer in bioreactors.⁷²

With submerged fermentation it is essential to improve and keep strict control of process operating conditions, such as temperature, agitation, pH, and aeration—especially when scaling up the process for industrial production and trying to keep biosurfactants economically competitive with their chemical counterparts.⁷³

Regarding biosurfactant applications, it is also important to know the biosurfactants' structural classification when considering applications. The properties of a biosurfactant are determined by the location and size of the polar and nonpolar functional groups. Thus, biosurfactant structure is closely related to its intended application. Biosurfactants of low molecular weight, such as glycolipids, polyol lipids, fatty acids, neutral lipids, and short chain lipopeptides, have higher activity to reduce surface tension. Biosurfactants with high molecular weight, such as lipopolysaccharides, lipoproteins, and polymeric particles, are best used as emulsifying agents, and are therefore called bioemulsifiers. All biosurfactants function through some kind of surface activity.^5,7

Recent studies of biosurfactant applications developed in Latin America are presented in Table 3.^{6,27,28,47,59,62,63,68,69,74

–88} Most of these studies are focused on the petrochemical industry and bioremediation, although environmental, biomedical, and food applications were also reported. The wide array of applications highlights the importance of such biomolecules in sustainable development of green products.

Table 3.

Biosurfactant Applications Developed in Different Latin American Countries

APPLICATION	MICROORGANISM	CLASS OF BIOSURFACTANT	COUNTRY	REFERENCE
Petrochemical industry, enhanced oil recovery applications	Bacillus subtilis	Surfactin	Brazil	6
Bioremediation in recovery of weathered soils with heavy hydrocarbon particles	Klebsiella pneumonia and Serratia marcescens	Not identified	Mexico	27
Oil bioremediation	Pseudomonas sp.	Rhamnolipid	Argentina	28
Bioremediation in the petroleum industry	Candida sphaerica	Anionic glycolipid	Brazil	47
Bioremediation in cleaning of contaminated soils	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Rhamnolipid	Brazil	59
Environmental application, in biodegradation of hydrophobic compounds in soil	Pseudomonas cepacia	Anionic glycolipid	Brazil	62
Oil industry as a complement to remediation processes involving contaminated water	Candida sphaerica	Anionic glycolipid	Brazil	63
Bioremediation of impacted soils	B. subtilis	Surfactin	Brazil	68
Environmental and food industry applications	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Rhamnolipid	Brazil	69
Bioremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals	Amycolatopsis tucumanensis	Bioemulsifiers lipopolysaccharides/polysaccharides	Argentina	74
Bioinsecticidal activity against larvae and mosquitos	P. aeruginosa	Rhamnolipid	Brazil	75
Removal of heavy metals	P. aeruginosa	Rhamnolipid	Venezuela	76
Oil recovery from sand	Candida glabrata	Not identified	Brazil	77
Biomedical applications (antimicrobial and antiadhesive property)	Candida sphaerica	Not identified	Brazil	78
Bioremediation in phenanthrene removal	Penicillium sp.	Not identified	Mexico	79
Bioremediation in enhancement of hydrocarbon waste biodegradation	B. subtilis	Surfactin	Argentina	80
Bioremediation of heavy metals	Candida lipolytica	Lipopeptide	Brazil	81
Agriculture, as an alternative to help beekeepers combat the foulbrood agent P. larvae	B. subtilis	Surfactin	Argentina	82
Biomedical, in the inhibition of Candida albicans biofilms formation	Trichosporon montevideense	Glycolipid	Brazil	83
Biomedical, for antimicrobial and anti-adhesive properties	Candida lipolytica	Polymeric structure (Rufisan)	Brazil	84
Bioremediation of oil spills Biomedical, for antimicrobial activities	P. aeruginosa	Rhamnolipid	Brazil	85
Bionanotechnology, as dispersant of acid-treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes	B. subtilis	Lipopeptides (surfactin and fengycin)	Brazil	86
Cosmetic and pharmaceutical formulations, for anti-proliferative effects	Sphingobacterium detergens	Not identified	Chile	87
Bioremediation of crude oil-polluted soils	B. subtilis	Surfactin	Argentina	88

Biosurfactants can be employed in the petrochemicals industry in enhanced oil recovery, cleaning of oil storage tanks, remediation of oil-contaminated environments, and wastewater treatment processes. Biosurfactants are well-suited for such processes because of the need for compounds that remain stable under adverse conditions, such as high salinity and temperature, which usually make synthetic surfactant application ineffective.⁸⁹

Trends in the Market and Advances in Intellectual Property Regarding Biosurfactant Research

With the importance of biosurfactant research, scientific publications and patents on the topic are continuously increasing worldwide. Large-scale industrial production is already being implemented. A large increase in the global biosurfactant market has occurred in the last few years; in 2013, the global biosurfactant market was estimated at about 344,068 tons, according to Transparency Market Research (Albany, NY).⁹⁰ It is estimated to reach 476,512 tons by 2018, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3%.¹⁴

These data are a clear reflection of the industrial importance of biosurfactants, which are generating interest in various fields. According to Transparency Market Research, the household detergents and personal care segments represent the main applications of biosurfactants and will contribute to more than 56.8% of the global biosurfactant market by 2018.⁹⁰ Developing regions such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America will consume 21% of all biosurfactants produced worldwide.¹⁴

As the market size and demand for biosurfactants increase, R&D to improve biosurfactant production processes continues. Some companies are already producing biosurfactants through large-scale processes, but these are all located in developed regions, such as the US, Europe, and Asia.⁹¹ Despite all of the ongoing development, the market for biosurfactants is still very small when compared to the projected market for synthetic surfactants. It is estimated that the production of synthetic surfactants will reach a volume of 24,037 million tons and be valued at $42.12 billion by 2020.⁹²

Brazil stands out among Latin American countries in biosurfactant research, presenting more patents and publications than any other country in the region. Brazil also has the only pilot plant constructed exclusively for biosurfactants production in Latin America. The plant's 200L fermenter is constructed specially to avoid foam formation, using oxygen membranes in nondispersive mode. The process is a fed-batch fermentation.⁴² Using this system, Kronemberger and coworkers managed to scale up the production of rhamnolipids, reporting high volumetric productivity by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA1 using glycerol as a carbon source and nitrate at high C/N for staggering.⁹³ Previous lab-scale tests found that this biosurfactant was able to reduce surface tension to 26.9 mN/m.⁹⁴ Another report of biosurfactant production at pilot scale was made by Barros et al.⁵⁶ These authors adapted a pilot-scale bioreactor (40L) with simultaneous foam collection. Bacillus subtilis LB5a was used for biosurfactant production, and cassava wastewater was used as the substrate. The yield of semi-purified surfactant in the foam was 2.4 g/L, and the surface tension of the medium was reduced from 51 to 27 mN/m.⁵⁶

Brazil is among the five leading countries worldwide in biosurfactants research in terms of publications and patents. After Brazil, Mexico is the country with the most publications and patents regarding biosurfactants in Latin America; however, it only holds the 26^th spot globally. Using the keyword “biosurfactant” in the search platform Elsevier Scopus, results showed that other countries in Latin America do not present relevant intellectual production on biosurfactant research. Figure 1 shows the number of scientific publications from the five leading countries in biosurfactant research and from the Latin American countries that have currently published papers on the subject.

Fig. 1.

Number of publications by the five leading countries in biosurfactant research and Latin American countries found when searching for the term “biosurfactant” on the Elsevier Scopus database.

Use of the two keywords “biosurfactants and waste” revealed Brazil to be the country with the most publications. After Brazil, developing countries such as India and China also had presented many publications in this field. The search also revealed a smaller number of publications from other Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Argentina, and Venezuela. The result shows how important it is for developing countries to find a suitable use for the massive amounts of waste from agro-industrial processes. Biosurfactants are a high value-added molecule that can be produced from low-cost materials, providing an economic gain.

Despite tremendous potential regarding the rich biodiversity and availability of cheap and renewable substrates, Latin America still has much to explore in terms of biosurfactant research. Existing bottlenecks in R&D present ongoing difficulties. However, Brazil stands out in biotechnology research in Latin America thanks to government policies that have encouraged the development of biofuel technology and biotechnological processes—favoring biosurfactant research.

Conclusions

Biosurfactants have been known as “multifunctional materials” since they have a wide array of applications in a variety of industrial processes, such as detergents, cosmetics, textiles, paint, food, and petrochemicals. They can also be applied in fields such as environmental remediation, health, agriculture, and mining. Latin America presents great potential for biosurfactants R&D, but Brazil currently stands out from all other Latin American countries in terms of intellectual property and patents regarding biosurfactants production. Brazil is a country with a long history of biotechnological development, mainly for biofuels, and it has vast agricultural resources and production capabilities. Biosurfactant production using cheap substrates derived from the agricultural industry is natural and, in this regard, Brazil is the global leader in R&D of biosurfactant production from waste materials.

No specific government policy for the development of green products exists in Latin America. In Brazil, government policies for biotechnological innovation are still very focused on biofuel production and less so on other value-added molecules such as biosurfactants. The implementation of biorefineries may help exploit biomass and further develop the production of value-added products from these residues. However, such biorefineries are still an abstract concept, requiring R&D to be economically feasible and subsequently implemented.

Biosurfactants are economically and environmentally attractive as they have a broad range of applications, are biodegradeable, and can be sustainably produced from inexpensive agro-industrial waste. Latin America has an outstanding opportunity to develop novel technologies. The region is also well positioned to take take the lead in developing and implementing effective processes to produce these promising biomolecules at large scale.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), the Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), and the Research Council for the State of São Paulo (FAPESP) (Award Number 2015/06238-4) for financial support. The authors would also like to thank Nicole Labruto for translation assistance.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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