Feedstocks for bio-based surfactants

At the heart of bio-based surfactant preparation is the utilization of long-chain fatty acids found primarily in seed oil in the form of triacylglycerols (TAGs) for the lipophile. The ideal fatty acyl group for industrial, non-food utilization is saturates, while for food-based 

Lyle LLC (Loudon, TN) (Shelley 2007) glyceric acid via fermentation (Habe et al 2009) and polyglycerol, through homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis (Barrault et al, 2004). 

Amino acids can serve as surfactant hydrophUes via covalent attachment to their carboxylic acid and/or amino functional groups (Infante et al., 2009a, 2009b Husmann, 2008). In addition, amino acids can be converted into ethanolamine and isopropylamine (from serine and threonine, respectively) (Scott et al., 2007), which serve as hydrophiles for cationic surfactants (Otero, 2009). DNA-derived bio-based surfactants have also been synthesized (Leal et al, 2006 Xu et al., 2005 Bilalov et al., 2004). 

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