Surfactant biodegradable

R. D. Swisher, ed.. Surfactant Biodegradation, Surfactant Science Series, Vol. 18, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1987. 

The effluent from the isolation wash belt is the principal wastewater stream from the polymerization process. It contains highly diluted acetic acid and a surfactant that is not biodegradable. The wastewater streams are sent to sewage treatment plants where BOD is reduced to acceptable levels. Alternative biodegradable surfactants have been reported in the Hterature (173). 

W. K. Fischer, in Fettalkohole-Rohstoffe, Verfahren und Verwendung, Henkel, Diisseldorf, 1981. From R. D. Swisher (ed.), Surfactant Biodegradation. Surfactant Science Series, Vol. 18, 2nd Ed., Marcel Dekker, New York, 1987, pp. 813 and 819. 

Owen SA, NJ Russell, WA House, GF White (1998) Re-evaluation of the hypothesis that biodegradable surfactants stimulate surface attachment of competent bacteria. Microbiology (UK) 143 3649-3659. 

In contrast to specifying to suppliers what chemicals or materials are restricted, it is useful to specify exactly what chemicals and materials are desired. Once a material or chemical is well characterized, and it is considered benign with respect to human and environmental health, it can be added to a preferred or positive list (i.e., P-list). For example, a textile manufacturer may source certified organic cotton, or polyester made with antimony-free catalysts, to develop a product line based on these fibres. Or a cleaning product formulator may seek bio-based solvents or rapidly biodegradable surfactants consistent with their product development objectives. 

Alkylpolyglucosides (APGs) are highly biodegradable surfactants [1344]. The addition of APGs, even at very low concentrations, to a polymer mud can drastically reduce the fluid loss even at high temperatures. Moreover, both fluid rheology and temperature resistance are improved. 

If the initial oil concentration in the sludge is high, high-temperature centrifugation with biodegradable surfactant is recommended to lower the concentration to a reasonable value. The resulting solid extract can be mixed with cement to obtain cement of a quality suitable for masonry. 

L. F. Nicora and W. M. McGregor. Biodegradable surfactants for cosmetics find application in drilling fluids. In Proceedings Volume, pages 723-730. lADC/SPE Drilling Conf (Dallas, TX, 3/3-3Z6), 1998. 

In this chapter, we have summarised the available data for major surfactants and their metabolites in WWTPs. Since the use of some poorly biodegradable surfactants has been reduced considerably and new surfactants fulfilling requirements for environmental acceptability are now introduced into daily practice, the present chapter lists mainly data generated in the last 5-6 years. 

Surfactants are selected based primarily on the degree of solubilization. Other factors to be considered include toxicity, biodegradability, surfactant sorption, and surfactant solubility and compatibility with the separation process. Surfactants have the ability to lower the interfacial tension between water and the contaminant by as little as a factor of three to four orders of magnitude. Combined with a sufficient reduction in capillary forces, this allows pumped groundwater theoretically to move the DNAPL toward the recovery or extraction well. This is accomplished by injecting surfactant solution into the contaminated zone. Impacted groundwater characterized by an increase in the concentration of the contaminant is then recovered and treated. 

The reaction was first conducted with success on sucrose [82], The degree of substitution (DS) obtained was controlled by the reaction time. Thus, under standard conditions (0.05% Pd(OAc)2/TPPTS, NaOH (1 M)/iPrOH (5/1), 50 °C) the DS was 0.5 and 5 after 14 and 64 h reaction time, respectively. The octadienyl chains were hydrogenated quantitatively in the presence of 0.8-wt.% [RhCl(TPPTS)3] catalyst in a HjO-EtOH (50/10) mixture, yielding a very good biodegradable surfactant (surface tension of 25 mN m-1 at 0.005% concentration in water) [84]. Telomerization reaction was also conducted with success on other soluble carbohydrates such as fructose, maltose, sorbitol and /i-cyclodextrin. 

Esterification of carbohydrates with fatty esters is an important reaction that provides an important class of safer non-ionic surfactants. These biodegradable surfactants are widely used in the detergent, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and food industries [124-127]. 

Biosurfactants are natural, biodegradable surfactants synthesized by certain strains of bacteria,... 

BioSolve is a commercially available biodegradable surfactant that is used to enhance bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil and water. According to the vendor, BioSolve emulsifies and encapsulates petroleum-based products so that they become nonflammable and more readily bioavailable. Bioavailability is the combination substrate availability and substrate transport that allows for the initiation of bioremediation. 

A third and more recent example of where readily biodegradable surfactants have replaced surfactants that are more long-lived in the environment is the taking over of the market for textile softener surfactants by the ester quats from the stable quats. This transition is still in progress today but for several years the big soapers all base their softener formulations for the US and Western Europe markets on ester quats instead of traditional, stable quats. The change from stable quats to ester quats is probably the best example of the concept of introducing a cleavable bond in a given surfactant structure because the two types of products are very similar in structure and physical chemical charac-... 

An auspicious new strategy, in order to perform biocatalysis with hydrophobic substrates in w/o-microemulsion, is the usage of whole cells instead of purified enzymes [3,124,141]. There exist only a few surfactant-oil systems, in which whole cells are stable and suitable for a segmentation. Mainly the biodegradable surfactant based on sorbitan (Tween and Span) seems to be well suited for the solubilisation of whole cells in organic reaction media [142,143]. 

Biologically friendly ionic surfactants can be added to the wastewater at concentrations above the threshold value beyond which the surfactants self-assemble to form micelles. The resulting micelles can trap the hydrocarbon wastes since the hydrocarbon solutes prefer the hydrocarbon interior of the micelle over the aqueous environment outside. In addition, ionic wastes in the water adsorb to the polar heads of the surfactants (see Fig. 8.1). The resulting waste-laden micelles can then be removed more easily using ultrafiltration methods. Such a process, known as micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF), can be made continuous, scalable, cost effective, and environmentally friendly (through the use of biodegradable surfactants). 

Hendricks, A. C. Dolan, M. Camp, F. Cairns, J., Jr. Dickson, K. L. Comparative Toxicities of Intact and Biodegraded Surfactants to Fish, Snail, and Algae. R D Report, Center for Environmental Studies, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA, 1974. 

Pulp and Paper Industry. The pulp and paper industry is another area in which SAE can be widely utilized. In the deresination of pulp, C, SAE are suitable biodegradable surfactants to replace alkylphenol ethoxylates. 

In addition, because they are generally based on aminoacid structures, they are among the most biodegradable surfactants available to the formulator. Products based on amphoteric surfactants are usually readily biodegradable, thus having a minimal impact on the environment. 

Linear primary alcohols and alpha olefins in the C6-C 8 range have enjoyed remarkable growth in the last three decades. As esters, the C6—C,0 alcohols are used for plasticizing PVC. In the C 2-C]g range, the alcohols are used to make readily biodegradable surfactants of various types such as ethoxylates (nonionic), alcohol sulfates, and sulfates of ethoxylates (anionic). Alpha olefins are used as polyethylene comonomer (33%) and as raw materials for detergent alcohols (22%), oxo alcohols (10%), and lubricants and lube oil additives (18%). 

---