Biosurfactants Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Global Industry Analysis: By Product (Rhamnolipids, Sophorolipids, Mannosylerythritol A, Trehalose Lipid (dimycolate), Surfactin, Others), By Application (Household Detergents, Personal Care, Oilfield Chemicals, Agriculture, Others) and Region Forecast 2020-2031

Biosurfactants Market size was valued at US$ 1.6 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$ 2.6 billion by 2031, growing at a significant CAGR of 7% from 2025-2031. Biosurfactants are costly compared to conventional surfactants. Hence, it is impacting on the adoption of biosurfactants. In addition, lower biosurfactant yields and capital-intensive processes are creating problems for the scale-up. However, we anticipate that the yield will improve over the years, and the biosurfactants will have lower costs.

Companies like Evonik are expanding their biosurfactant manufacturing to increase their biosurfactant volumes. Evonik has partnered with Unilever to use biosurfactants in its products. Currently, the biosurfactants industry is relatively smaller than the conventional surfactants. The global surfactant volume was 12 Million metric tons, and the biosurfactant volume was 300,000 tons (around 2.5% of the overall surfactants). Rhamnolipids have a significant market share, followed by the sophorolipids product groups in the biosurfactants market.

The market is driven by several factors such as growing demand for green solutions, stringent regulations on synthetic surfactants, and rising demand for personal care products in emerging economies.  Biosurfactants are surface-active agents derived from microorganisms or natural sources. They offer several advantages over traditional synthetic surfactants including, high biodegradability, low toxicity, renewable resources, and diverse functionalities these advantages are driving the demand for biosurfactants in various industries, including detergents and cleaners, personal care products, food processing, agricultural chemicals, and oil and gas industry.

Consumers are increasingly interested in eco-friendly products, and biosurfactants are a perfect fit for this trend, governments around the world are implementing stricter regulations on the use of synthetic surfactants due to environmental concerns and the growing middle class in developing countries is driving the demand for personal care products, which is creating a new market for biosurfactants. Technological advancements, expansion into new applications, and growing demand for bio-based products are the opportunities and focus on sustainability, development of new types of biosurfactants, and increasing demand from Asia-Pacific are the trends in the market. Yet higher production costs, limited production capacity, and technical challenges are the constraints in the market which will hinder the market growth.

Key Developments

• On 30^th October 2024, US EPA approved the Locus Fermentation Solutions (Locus FS) list of biosurfactants for consumer and industrial use. The approval included the linear and lactonic, and hydrolysed and non-hydrolysed versions of the company’s glycolipids for use in consumer and industrial applications.
• On 18^th January 2024, Evonik has started manufacturing the rhamnolipid biosurfactants from its Slovakia site. In this site, the company invested low 3-digit million euro to manufacture double digit metric kilotons rhamnolipid biosurfactants.
• In March 2022, Holiferm and Sasol Chemicals announced the expansion of their partnership to develop and market sustainable surfactants. This collaboration aims to jointly develop new biosurfactants and enable the broad commercialization of sophorolipids.
• In March 2021, BASF, the German chemical giant, made a strategic move to strengthen its position in the biosurfactants market. BASF established a strategic alliance with Allied Carbon Solutions Co., Ltd. (ACS), a Japan-based commercial provider of surfactants from biomass. This alliance included BASF taking an equity stake, making it the single largest shareholder of ACS.