Sustainable purification, functional characterization, and performance assessment of novel biosurfactants

Surfactants are versatile ingredients found in major chemical industries, health care, home care, personal care, pharmaceuticals, medicines, to name just a few. The majority of these commercial sectors, however, utilize chemical surfactants. These fossil-derived surfactants not only consume our planet’s finite oil reserves but also contribute negatively to the health of marine environments in turn affecting our ecosystems or worse, entering the human food chain through aquatic species.

The pandemic-induced demand for the usage of safe, mild-to-skin, eco-friendly detergent systems is driving industrial pressure to limit the use of conventional fossil-based systems and move towards the biobased and microbially derived alternatives. The proposed project therefore will involve the research and development of structural and physio-chemical properties of novel biosurfactants created from new microbial strains. Apart from the molecular structure that can be elucidated using analytical techniques, physico-chemical surfactant properties will be investigated to further the understanding of these biosurfactants and their potential applications. By understanding the properties of Dispersa’s biosurfactants, it will unlock a wider outlook on the applications that can be targeted using these molecules.

Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Deziel

Student:

Partner:

Dispersa

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Université du Québec : Institut national de la recherche scientifique

Program: