PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Biosurfactants account for about 12% of the global value of the surfactant market, which is currently dominated by synthetic surfactants obtained from fossil sources. Yet, the production of biosurfactants from renewable feedstock is bound to increase, driven by the increasing pressure from both society and governments for chemistry-based industries to become more ecofriendly and economically sustainable. A photo-chemical oxidation process is reported here, yielding new biosurfactants from urban biowaste in water that perform as a solvent and terminal oxidant reagent at room temperature without the addition of conventional oxidants and catalysts. Products with 200-500 kDa molecular weight are obtained. They lower the surface tension of water down to 34 mN/m at 0.5-2 g/L concentration. The estimated cost is rather low (0.1-1.5 EUR/kg), which is competitive with the cost of synthetic surfactants but much lower than the cost of the best-performing bacterial surfactants. For the implementation of the photo-chemical oxidation process at the industrial level, the results suggest that the new biosurfactants obtained in the present work may not reach the performance level of the best-performing bacterial surfactants capable of lowering the surface tension of water down to 28 mN/m. Yet, the biosurfactants produced by the photo-chemical process have a greater chance of being marketed on large scales.
摘要：
生物表面活性剂约占全球表面活性剂市场价值的12%，目前主要由从化石来源获得的合成表面活性剂。然而，来自可再生原料的生物表面活性剂的产量必然会增加，来自社会和政府的压力越来越大，要求化学工业变得更加环保和经济可持续。这里报道了光化学氧化过程，从城市生物废弃物在水中产生新的生物表面活性剂，在室温下作为溶剂和终末氧化剂试剂，无需添加常规氧化剂和催化剂。获得具有200-500kDa分子量的产物。它们在0.5-2g/L浓度下将水的表面张力降低到34mN/m。估计成本相当低（0.1-1.5欧元/公斤），这与合成表面活性剂的成本具有竞争力，但远低于性能最佳的细菌表面活性剂的成本。对于在工业水平上实施光化学氧化工艺，结果表明，在本工作中获得的新生物表面活性剂可能无法达到能够将水的表面张力降低至28mN/m的最佳性能细菌表面活性剂的性能水平。然而，通过光化学方法生产的生物表面活性剂有更大的机会大规模销售。
