The role of nitrogen in multiorganism strategies for biosurfactant production

Abstract

Abstract Production of large quantities of biosurfactants which are costcompetitive with surfactants of petrochemical origin requires the use of cost‐free or cost‐credit wastes as process feedstocks for microbial growth and biosurfactant synthesis. Several multiorganism strategies are suggested for improving biosurfactant yields from wastes. One such strategy involving co‐culturing of lipogenic (oleaginous) microbes at one stage of the overall process was found imcompatible with the nitrogen requirements for regulation of lipogenesis. Other strategies are proposed which avoid conflicts in regulatory mechanisms. Emphasis is placed in these latter strategies on the uniqueness of municipal wastewater treatment sludges both to produce a costcompetitive biosurfactant and to offset the costs of high quality wastewater treatment.