Biosurfactants produced by fermentation offer a sustainable alternative to traditional surfactants. Despite the clear advantages of biosurfactants, their overall use is hampered by the lack of structural variation currently available on the market. This is in sharp contrast to chemically produced surfactants where one can easily introduce structural variation by simply changing the building blocks. Structural variation of (bio)surfactants is essential for formulators as they find application in a very broad range of sectors.

The yeast Starmerella bombicolais able to synthesize and secrete a promising class of biosurfactants: sophorolipids, at economically relevant yields and productivities. This very efficient biosurfactant producing yeast has been metabolically engineered such that all structural parts of the glycolipid biosurfactant molecule can now be controlled: fatty acid tail, sugar moiety, acetylation and lactonization. New insights into the sophorolipid biochemical synthesis pathway were obtained over the years by extensive transcriptomics and proteomics experiments. The sequencing and annotation of the full genome of the production organism has resulted in the identification of the sophorolipid synthesis enzymes and their regulation. However, there are still important gaps in the knowledge about the synthesis of sophorolipids that are being uncovered.

Thanks to new insights, metabolic engineering of S. bombicola became possible and has resulted in a technology platform to produce tailor-made and new-to-nature biosurfactants with novel properties. Over 30 different types of sophorolipids can now be produced in pure form, thus significantly broadening the application potential of sophorolipid biosurfactants. New applications for these molecules showcase the potential of biosurfactants in general.

Turning biosurfactant research into marketable products also requires optimisation and scale-up of the fermentation process and down-stream processing routes. This part of the work has been performed at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant.

The development of biosurfactants is expected to lead to more sustainable products as they are produced from renewable feedstocks by a safe bioprocess and are very well biodegradable in the environment. Moreover, in a recent development, sophorolipids can be produced from waste raw materials, significantly increasing the sustainability record of the biosurfactants.

The lecture will describe the technical development of the sophorolipid technology platform, the scale-up, industrialization and commercialisation, a rocky path that has led to the establishment of the spin-off company AmphiStar that is focusing on biosurfactants.