Abstract:
The use of biosurfactants has been limited because of their low yield and high production cost. A central composite design was used to study the interactive effect of sucrose, yeast extract and sodium chloride which were the most influencing variables. Response surface analysis showed that the quadratic model with R sup(2) value of 0.9983 was fit for biosurfactant production. When genetic algorithm was used for maximization, the optimal activity (oil displacement zone) was found close to that obtained by response surface methodology, both of which were close to the predicted value. Biosurfactant production was enhanced by 1.2- fold using these approaches.
