Studies on Biosurfactants Produced using Bacillus cereus Isolated from Seawater with Biotechnological Potential for Marine Oil‐Spill Bioremediation

With the aim of producing a biotensioactive material for use in the remediation of marine environments, screening for biosurfactant‐producing bacteria was conducted with strains isolated from seawater contaminated with petroleum derivatives. Gene sequencing revealed that all four promising biosurfactant‐producing isolates belonged to the same genus and species, namely Bacillus cereus. The biosurfactant‐producing bacteria were cultivated with different carbon (glucose, soybean oil, and waste frying soybean oil) and nitrogen (ammonium chloride, sodium nitrate, urea, and peptone) sources. B. cereus strain BCS0 was chosen as the best biosurfactant producer in a mineral medium with 2% frying oil and 0.12% peptone. Following the optimization of agitation and cultivation time, an agitation rate of 250 rpm and 48 h of cultivation were selected. Under these conditions, the surface tension was reduced to 27 mN m−1 and the biosurfactant concentration was 3.5 g L−1. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the biosurfactant was defined as 500 mg L−1. The biosurfactant remained stable within large ranges of pH (2–10), salinity (2–10%), and temperature (5–120 °C). Under these conditions, motor oil emulsification rates were greater than 90%. Moreover, the biosurfactant properties remained unaltered after heating at 90 °C for 120 min. The biosurfactant enhanced the degradation of motor oil up to 96% in 27 days and exhibited considerable motor oil displacement capacity. Thus, the biosurfactant has potential in the application of remediation processes in marine environments.