Biosurfactants for enhanced oil recovery and bioremediation in the modern petroleum industry: A global review

Biosurfactants, microbial-derived surface-active molecules, present a sustainable and effective alternative to synthetic chemicals in the petroleum industry. This review examines their multifaceted roles in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and bioremediation of environments contaminated by crude oil and its refined fractions. In EOR, biosurfactants significantly reduce interfacial tension and alter wettability, enhancing oil mobilization as demonstrated by laboratory-scale core flooding (e.g., 31-44% additional oil recovery) and micromodel studies. Their integration with nanoparticles and polymers further boosts recovery efficiency, with peak performance reaching up to 95.1% oil recovery. For bioremediation, biosurfactants increase hydrocarbon bioavailability, accelerating the degradation of various petroleum compounds in soil and water. Research shows impressive biodegradation rates, with some consortia achieving over 95% crude oil degradation, resulting in a reliable mean degradation/removal rate of 92.3% across reported studies analyzed in this study. Production advancements focus on cost-effective, sustainable feedstocks like agricultural and industrial wastes, optimizing fermentation processes, and developing efficient downstream recovery methods. Detailed characterization efforts, supported by advanced analytical and computational tools (e.g., molecular dynamics simulations), are deepening the understanding of biosurfactant properties, stability under harsh conditions, and precise mechanisms of action. Despite significant progress, future research must address scaling up production for industrial application, validating performance in complex, real-world reservoir and environmental settings, and thoroughly elucidating molecular-level structure-function relationships for rational design. Integrating biosurfactant technology into holistic, circular economy models for pollution management represents a crucial step towards a more sustainable petroleum sector. • Biosurfactants: Eco-friendly oil recovery & pollution cleanup. • Sustainable production from waste biomass. • Molecular insights enhance biosurfactant design. • Paving way for green petroleum industry.