Use of biosurfactants in the oil industry

With oil becoming more and more useful in our lives it is becoming necessary to increase the production efficiency of wells and reduce the environmental impacts of the oil industry thus meeting the requirements of environmental legislation. Therefore in this book we will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using natural surfactants (biosurfactants) comparing them to the use of synthetic surfactants (surfactants) in tertiary oil recovery and in the bioremediation of contaminated areas. In this way some physicochemical factors were evaluated in the action of these agents obtained through different routes under the conditions of the formation. Currently the scientific debate is that despite their great advantage over surfactants of petrochemical origin biotensoactives still have high production costs that can make these processes economically unviable. However the use of lower-cost substrates and investment in new synthesis techniques combined with high biodegradability and low toxicity could make biotensoactives more commonly used compounds in the oil industry in the near future.