SBIR-STTR Award

Biosurfactants are proposed as an innovative technological solution to the problem of sludge accumulation on ship-board oil/water separators. They are equal or superior to synthetic surfactants with respect to exhibiting minimuminterfacial tension values at significantly lower CMC values. Biosurfact- ants are also more readily biodegradable and exhibit less toxicity then do the majority of synthetic surfactants. The team of Bioremediation Consulting Inc (BCI) and Finnerty Enterprises Inc (FEI) will screen biosurfactants from a unique in-house collection of approximately 100 microbial strains for their effectiveness in mobilizing sludge from bench scale laboratory test surfaces. Biosurfactants obtained from commercially available sources will be compared to those in FEI's collection. Several biosurfactants will be chemically identified and characterized for the property of lowering interfacial tension and increasing sludge mobilization under a range of salt concentrations and temperatures.