Biosurfactant & Industry Terms

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• 1,4-dioxane

  1,4-dioxane is a synthetic industrial chemical that can form as a trace byproduct when surfactants and other ingredients are made by ethoxylation. The U.S. EPA classifies it as likely to be carcinogenic to humans, and it is a persistent groundwater contaminant.

A

• Abiotic stress

  Abiotic stress is stress on a plant caused by non-living environmental conditions, such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flooding or nutrient imbalance, as opposed to biotic stress from pests, diseases and weeds. It is a leading cause of crop yield loss.

• Acidizing

  Acidizing is a well treatment in which acid is pumped into a well to dissolve rock, scale or other damage near the wellbore and restore or improve the flow of oil, gas or water. The main forms are acid washing, matrix acidizing and acid fracturing.

• Acid sludge

  Acid sludge is a thick, insoluble material that can form when acid used in well treatments reacts with certain crude oils. Asphaltenes and other heavy components precipitate at the acid-oil contact, especially when dissolved iron is present, and the sludge can plug the formation.

• Activator

  In froth flotation, an activator is a reagent that changes a mineral's surface so that a collector can attach to it, making a mineral float that otherwise would not. The classic example is copper sulfate, which activates sphalerite, the main zinc mineral, for flotation with xanthate collectors.

• Additionality

  Additionality is the principle that a carbon credit should represent emission reductions or carbon removals that would not have happened without the project the credit pays for. If the practice would have been adopted anyway, the credit is not additional.

• Adjuvant

  An adjuvant is an ingredient added to a spray mixture, or built into a formulation, to improve how a crop protection or nutrient product performs or how the mixture handles. Surfactants, crop oils, drift reducers and water conditioners are common types.

• Agricultural biological

  An agricultural biological is a crop input derived from living organisms or natural materials, such as beneficial microorganisms, plant extracts or fermentation products, used to improve plant nutrition, growth, stress tolerance or protection from pests and disease.

• Amphiphilic molecule

  An amphiphilic molecule, or amphiphile, has one part that is attracted to water (hydrophilic) and another part that is repelled by water (hydrophobic). Surfactants, soaps and the phospholipids in cell membranes are amphiphilic.

• Amphoteric surfactant

  An amphoteric surfactant is a surfactant whose head group can carry a positive charge, a negative charge or both, depending on the pH of the solution. Betaines such as cocamidopropyl betaine are common examples, prized for mildness and foam boosting.

• Anionic surfactant

  An anionic surfactant is a surfactant whose water-attracting head group carries a negative charge in water. Sulfates, sulfonates and soaps are common examples, and anionic surfactants are the most widely used class in cleaning products.

• Aquatic toxicity

  Aquatic toxicity is the harmful effect of a substance on aquatic organisms such as fish, invertebrates and algae. It is measured in standardized laboratory tests and reported as values such as LC50 and EC50, the concentrations that affect half of the test organisms.

• Asphaltene

  Asphaltenes are the heaviest, most polar fraction of crude oil, defined by solubility: they dissolve in aromatic solvents such as toluene but not in light alkanes such as heptane. When they come out of solution they form sticky deposits that can plug rock, wells and equipment.

• ASTM D6866

  ASTM D6866 is a standard test method that measures how much of the carbon in a product comes from recent biological sources rather than from fossil fuels, using radiocarbon (carbon-14) analysis. It is the basis for certified biobased content claims.

B

• Bacillus

  Bacillus is a genus of rod-shaped, spore-forming bacteria common in soil. Selected strains of species such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens are widely used in agricultural biologicals to promote plant growth, improve nutrient availability and suppress plant diseases.

• Battery metals

  Battery metals are the metals and minerals used to make rechargeable batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. The group usually includes lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite, and often copper, which is essential to electrification.

• Bio-based surfactant

  A bio-based surfactant is a surfactant made wholly or partly from renewable raw materials, such as plant oils and sugars, by chemical processing. It differs from a biosurfactant, which is produced directly by microorganisms through fermentation.

• Biobased content

  Biobased content is the share of the carbon in a product that comes from renewable biological sources, such as plants, rather than from fossil sources. It is measured by radiocarbon analysis under ASTM D6866 and expressed as a percentage of total organic carbon.

• Biodegradability

  Biodegradability is the ability of a substance to be broken down by microorganisms into simpler substances such as carbon dioxide, water and biomass. For chemicals, it is measured by standardized tests that classify a substance as readily biodegradable, inherently biodegradable or persistent.

• Biofertilizer

  A biofertilizer is a product containing living microorganisms that increase the supply or availability of nutrients to plants, for example by fixing nitrogen from the air, solubilizing phosphorus, or extending the reach of roots. The microbes, not the product's own nutrient content, deliver the benefit.

• Biological nitrogen fixation BNF

  Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the conversion of nitrogen gas from the air into ammonia by certain bacteria and archaea, using the enzyme nitrogenase. In agriculture, the most important example is rhizobia fixing nitrogen inside the root nodules of legumes.

• Biological seed treatment

  A biological seed treatment is a product containing beneficial microorganisms or biologically derived substances that is applied to seed before planting, so that the organisms or compounds are in place as the seed germinates and roots begin to grow.

• Biomanufacturing

  Biomanufacturing is the industrial-scale production of materials, chemicals, fuels, food ingredients or medicines using living systems, such as microorganisms, cells or enzymes, rather than conventional chemical synthesis alone.

• Biopesticide

  A biopesticide is a pesticide derived from natural materials, such as microorganisms, plants, animals or certain minerals. The U.S. EPA groups biopesticides into microbial pesticides, biochemical pesticides and plant-incorporated protectants.

• Biostimulant

  A biostimulant is a substance or microorganism that, when applied to seeds, plants or the root zone, stimulates the plant's natural processes to improve nutrient uptake, nutrient use efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, or crop quality and yield, independent of any nutrients it contains.

• Biosurfactant

  A biosurfactant is a surface-active compound produced by a living microorganism, such as a bacterium or a yeast, rather than made by chemical synthesis. Glycolipids such as sophorolipids and rhamnolipids, and lipopeptides such as surfactin, are the best-known classes.

• Box-applied biological

  A box-applied biological is a microbial product applied to seed in the planter box or seed hopper at planting, rather than as a seed treatment days or weeks in advance. It is typically a dry formulation mixed with the seed as the planter is filled.

• Bradyrhizobium japonicum

  Bradyrhizobium japonicum is a soil bacterium that forms nitrogen-fixing nodules on soybean roots. It is the rhizobium most commonly used in soybean inoculants. Soybeans are not native to North America, so fields without a history of soybeans may lack enough of the bacterium.

• BTEX

  BTEX is an abbreviation for four closely related aromatic hydrocarbons: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes. They occur naturally in crude oil and gasoline, are used as industrial solvents, and are regulated because of their health effects, particularly benzene, a known human carcinogen.

C

• Capillary number Nc

  The capillary number is a dimensionless ratio of the viscous forces pushing a fluid through porous rock to the capillary forces holding it in place. In oil recovery, residual oil is mobilized only when the capillary number is raised far above normal waterflood values, usually by lowering interfacial tension.

• Capillary pressure

  Capillary pressure is the pressure difference across the curved boundary between two immiscible fluids, such as oil and water, in a narrow pore. It increases as pores get smaller and as interfacial tension rises, and it is a main force trapping oil in reservoir rock.

• CASE CASE

  CASE stands for coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers, an industry grouping of product types that are formulated from similar raw materials, such as polymers, resins, solvents, pigments and additives, and that share many of the same chemistry suppliers.

• Cation exchange capacity CEC

  Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a soil's ability to hold positively charged nutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and ammonium, on negatively charged sites on clay and organic matter. It is reported on soil tests in milliequivalents per 100 grams or centimoles of charge per kilogram.

• Cationic surfactant

  A cationic surfactant is a surfactant whose water-attracting head group carries a positive charge in water. Quaternary ammonium compounds are the main examples, used as fabric softeners, hair conditioners, disinfectants and corrosion inhibitors.

• Channeling (heap leach)

  Channeling in a heap leach is uneven flow of leach solution through the ore pile, in which solution follows a limited number of preferred paths and bypasses other parts of the heap. Ore that the solution does not reach is not leached, which lowers metal recovery.

• Chelating agent

  A chelating agent, or chelant, is a molecule that binds a metal ion at two or more points, wrapping it in a ring-shaped complex called a chelate. Chelants keep metal ions such as calcium, magnesium and iron in solution and prevent them from reacting, precipitating or forming scale.

• Chemigation

  Chemigation is the application of agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides, through an irrigation system. When the chemical is a fertilizer, the practice is usually called fertigation. Chemigation requires label approval and specific safety equipment to protect water supplies.

• Class II injection well

  A Class II injection well is a well used to inject fluids associated with oil and natural gas production, such as produced water for disposal or water for enhanced oil recovery. Class II wells are regulated under the Underground Injection Control program of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

• CleanGredients

  CleanGredients is an online database of chemical ingredients, such as surfactants, solvents and fragrances, that have been reviewed by third-party profilers and meet the U.S. EPA Safer Choice criteria for their function. Formulators use it to find ingredients for Safer Choice products.

• Cloud point (surfactant)

  The cloud point of a surfactant is the temperature at which a solution of a nonionic surfactant, such as an alcohol ethoxylate, turns cloudy on heating as the surfactant becomes less water-soluble and separates into a second phase.

• Co-surfactant

  A co-surfactant is a secondary surface-active ingredient used alongside a primary surfactant to improve how the formulation performs, for example by lowering interfacial tension further, stabilizing a microemulsion, boosting wetting or foam, or making the system milder.

• Coagulation

  Coagulation is a water treatment step in which chemicals called coagulants neutralize the electrical charges that keep fine suspended particles apart, allowing them to begin clumping together. It is usually followed by flocculation, which grows the clumps into flocs that can settle or be filtered.

• Coalescing agent

  A coalescing agent, or coalescent, is an additive in waterborne latex paints and coatings that softens the polymer particles temporarily so they can fuse into a continuous film as the water evaporates. It lowers the minimum film formation temperature and then leaves the film over time.

• Collector

  A collector is a flotation reagent that adsorbs onto the surface of a target mineral and makes it water-repellent, so that the mineral particles attach to air bubbles and float into the froth. Xanthates, dithiophosphates, fatty acids and amines are common collectors.

• Colony-forming unit CFU

  A colony-forming unit (CFU) is a measure of the number of viable microorganisms in a sample, based on how many visible colonies grow when the sample is spread on a nutrient medium. Microbial product labels use it to state how many live organisms they contain.

• Concentrate grade

  Concentrate grade is the concentration of the valuable metal or mineral in the concentrate produced by a mineral processing plant, usually expressed as a percentage by weight, such as percent copper. Higher grade means less gangue travels with each metric ton of metal.

• Contact angle

  Contact angle is the angle, measured through the liquid, where the edge of a liquid droplet meets a solid surface. It is the standard measure of wetting: low angles mean the liquid spreads, and angles above 90 degrees mean the surface repels it.

• Conventional reservoir

  A conventional reservoir is a body of porous, permeable rock in which oil or gas has migrated and collected beneath an impermeable seal, and from which it can flow to a well at economic rates without the large-scale stimulation that unconventional reservoirs require.

• Corn growth stages

  Corn growth stages are a standard system for describing a corn plant's development. Vegetative stages run from emergence (VE) through leaf stages (V1, V2 and so on) to tasseling (VT). Reproductive stages run from silking (R1) to physiological maturity (R6).

• Corrosion inhibitor

  A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical added in small amounts to a fluid to slow the corrosion of metal it contacts, usually by forming a protective film on the metal surface or by interfering with the electrochemical reactions that cause corrosion.

• Cover crop

  A cover crop is a crop grown mainly to protect and improve the soil rather than for harvest, typically planted between cash crops. Cover crops reduce erosion, add organic matter, can capture or fix nitrogen, suppress weeds and support soil biology.

• Cratering

  Cratering is a coating defect in which small, round depressions form in a wet film as it dries, sometimes exposing the surface underneath. It is usually caused by a low-surface-tension contaminant, such as a droplet of oil or silicone, that makes the surrounding coating flow away from it.

• Critical micelle concentration CMC

  Critical micelle concentration (CMC) is the surfactant concentration above which surfactant molecules begin to assemble into micelles. Below it, added surfactant lowers surface tension; above it, surface tension stays roughly constant and additional surfactant forms more micelles.

D

• Decline curve

  A decline curve is a plot of a well's production rate over time, showing how output falls as the reservoir is drained. Decline curve analysis fits a mathematical model to that history to forecast future production and estimate ultimate recovery.

• Degreasing

  Degreasing is the removal of oil, grease, fats and similar soils from surfaces such as machinery, metal parts, floors and process equipment. It is done with solvents or, increasingly, with water-based cleaners that rely on surfactants, alkalinity and heat.

• Demulsifier

  A demulsifier, or emulsion breaker, is a chemical used to separate an emulsion into its oil and water phases. In oil production it displaces the natural film that stabilizes water droplets in crude oil so the droplets can merge and settle out.

• Depressant

  A depressant is a flotation reagent that stops a particular mineral from floating, usually by making its surface more water-attracting or by preventing the collector from attaching to it. Depressants are used to reject gangue or to separate one valuable mineral from another.

• Detergency

  Detergency is the ability of a cleaning solution to remove soil from a surface and keep it suspended so it does not settle back. It depends on wetting the surface, loosening oily and particulate soil, and holding that soil in the wash liquid.

• Detergent builder

  A detergent builder is an ingredient that improves a detergent's cleaning, mainly by softening the water: it removes or ties up calcium and magnesium ions that would otherwise interfere with the surfactants. Builders also often supply alkalinity and help keep removed soil suspended.

• Dewatering

  Dewatering is the removal of water from a mineral slurry, such as a flotation concentrate or tailings, to produce a denser or drier solid and recover the water for reuse. It is done in stages, usually thickening, then filtration, and sometimes thermal drying.

• Direct release

  In EPA's Safer Choice program, a direct release product is one likely to enter the environment without passing through sewage treatment, such as a marine cleaner or graffiti remover. Its ingredients must meet stricter aquatic toxicity and biodegradation criteria.

• Dispersant

  A dispersant is a substance that keeps solid particles or droplets evenly separated in a liquid and prevents them from clumping together or settling out. It works by adsorbing on particle surfaces and creating electrical or physical repulsion between them.

• Dissolved air flotation DAF

  Dissolved air flotation (DAF) is a water treatment process that removes suspended solids, oils and greases by releasing very fine air bubbles into the water. The bubbles attach to the contaminants and float them to the surface, where they are skimmed off.

• Double cropping

  Double cropping is growing two crops in the same field within one year, one after the other. In the United States the most common example is planting soybeans immediately after harvesting winter wheat.

• Double inoculation

  Double inoculation is applying rhizobia inoculant to soybeans twice, or by two methods at once, such as a seed-applied product plus an in-furrow or planter-box product, to increase the number of nitrogen-fixing bacteria near the young roots.

E

• Emulsifier

  An emulsifier is a substance that helps form an emulsion and keeps it stable by collecting at the boundary between the oil and water droplets and preventing them from merging. Most emulsifiers are surfactants, though some polymers, proteins and fine particles also act as emulsifiers.

• Emulsion

  An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids that do not dissolve in each other, such as oil and water, in which one is dispersed through the other as small droplets. Most emulsions separate over time unless an emulsifier stabilizes the droplets.

• Endophyte

  An endophyte is a bacterium or fungus that lives inside a plant's tissues for at least part of its life without causing disease. Some endophytes benefit their host, for example by improving nutrient uptake, growth or tolerance to stress.

• Enhanced oil recovery EOR

  Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is any technique that recovers oil left in a reservoir after natural pressure and waterflooding have done what they can, by changing the properties of the oil, the rock or the fluids between them. The main types are thermal, gas injection and chemical EOR.

• Entrainment

  Entrainment is the carrying of fine particles into the flotation froth with water, rather than by attaching to air bubbles. Because it is not selective, it brings unwanted gangue into the concentrate and lowers its grade.

• EPA Safer Choice

  EPA Safer Choice is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program that certifies cleaning and other chemical-based products whose every ingredient meets EPA's safety criteria for human health and the environment. Certified products may carry the Safer Choice label.

• Estimated ultimate recovery EUR

  Estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) is the total amount of oil or gas a well, field or reservoir is expected to produce over its entire life, counting what has already been produced plus what remains to be recovered under a given development plan.

• Ethoxylation

  Ethoxylation is a chemical reaction that adds chains of ethylene oxide units to a molecule, such as a fatty alcohol, to make it more water-attracting. It is the main route to many nonionic surfactants and to ingredients such as sodium laureth sulfate.

F

• Fertigation

  Fertigation is the application of fertilizers, and sometimes other soluble crop inputs, through an irrigation system. It lets growers deliver nutrients in small, frequent doses timed to crop demand, directly to the root zone.

• Filter cake

  A filter cake is the layer of solids that builds up on a filter medium as a slurry is filtered, while the liquid passes through. In mineral processing, its moisture content is a key measure of dewatering performance for concentrates and filtered tailings.

• Flocculation

  Flocculation is the process of binding fine suspended particles together into larger clusters, called flocs, so they settle or can be removed more easily. It is usually driven by long-chain polymers called flocculants and is widely used in mineral processing and water treatment.

• Flotation reagent

  A flotation reagent is any chemical added in froth flotation to control which minerals float and how the froth behaves. The main groups are collectors, frothers and modifiers such as depressants, activators and pH regulators; together they make up the plant's reagent scheme.

• Flotation selectivity

  Flotation selectivity is the ability of a flotation process to recover the target mineral into the concentrate while rejecting gangue and other unwanted minerals. Higher selectivity allows a higher concentrate grade at the same recovery.

• Flow assurance

  Flow assurance is the discipline of ensuring that oil, gas and water keep flowing without interruption from the reservoir to the point of sale. It covers preventing and removing deposits such as paraffin, asphaltenes, scale and hydrates, and managing emulsions, corrosion and solids.

• Flowback

  Flowback is the fluid that returns to the surface from a well after hydraulic fracturing, before and during the start of production. It is largely the injected fracturing fluid, mixed increasingly with water from the formation.

• Foaming

  Foaming is the formation of foam, a mass of gas bubbles separated by thin liquid films. Surfactants make stable foam possible by stabilizing those films. Foam is wanted in some products and processes, such as shampoos and mineral flotation, and is a problem in many others.

• Foliar application

  A foliar application is the spraying of a crop input, such as a nutrient, biostimulant or crop protection product, directly onto a plant's leaves so that it is absorbed or acts through the foliage rather than through the roots.

• Formation damage

  Formation damage is any reduction in the natural ability of reservoir rock to let fluids flow into or out of a well, usually in the rock near the wellbore. It is caused by drilling, completion, production or injection activities and reduces well productivity or injectivity.

• Fouling

  Fouling is the unwanted buildup of deposits on surfaces in contact with water or process fluids, such as heat exchangers, pipes, membranes and cooling towers. Deposits can be mineral scale, suspended solids, corrosion products, organic material or biological growth.

• Fracturing fluid

  Fracturing fluid is the fluid pumped into a well during hydraulic fracturing to crack the rock and carry proppant into the fractures. It is mostly water, with small amounts of additives such as friction reducers, surfactants, biocides and scale inhibitors.

• Frother

  A frother is a surface-active flotation reagent that helps create small, stable air bubbles and a froth that can hold mineral particles long enough to be collected. Common frothers include MIBC and polyglycol ethers.

• Froth flotation

  Froth flotation is a mineral separation process in which valuable mineral particles are made water-repellent so they attach to air bubbles and rise into a froth, while unwanted minerals stay in the water. It is the most widely used method for concentrating sulfide and many other ores.

• Froth stability

  Froth stability is how well a flotation froth resists bubble bursting and merging as it rises and flows over the cell lip. It affects both recovery, because unstable froth drops valuable particles, and grade, because overly stable froth carries more water and gangue.

G

• Gangue

  Gangue is the commercially worthless material, usually minerals such as quartz, silicates, carbonates or unwanted sulfides, that surrounds or is mixed with the valuable minerals in an ore. Mineral processing separates the valuable minerals from the gangue.

• Glycolipid

  A glycolipid is a molecule made of a carbohydrate (sugar) group joined to a lipid (fatty) group. Glycolipids made by microorganisms, such as sophorolipids and rhamnolipids, are the most commercially developed class of biosurfactants.

• Grade-recovery curve

  A grade-recovery curve is a plot of concentrate grade against metallurgical recovery for a mineral separation process. It shows the trade-off between the two: recovering more of the valuable mineral usually means accepting a lower grade.

• Green chemistry

  Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. It is commonly framed by the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry set out by Paul Anastas and John Warner in 1998.

H

• Heap leaching

  Heap leaching is a method of extracting metals from ore by stacking crushed or mined ore on a lined pad and irrigating it with a chemical solution that dissolves the metal as it percolates through. The metal-bearing solution is collected and processed to recover the metal.

• Huanglongbing HLB

  Huanglongbing (HLB), also called citrus greening, is a bacterial disease of citrus trees spread by the Asian citrus psyllid. Infected trees produce small, bitter, misshapen fruit and decline over time. It has no cure and has sharply reduced citrus production in Florida.

• Hydraulic fracturing

  Hydraulic fracturing is a well stimulation technique in which fluid is pumped into rock at pressures high enough to crack it, and sand or another proppant is carried into the cracks to hold them open, creating pathways for oil and gas to flow to the well.

• Hydrophilic-lipophilic balance HLB

  Hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) is a number that describes how strongly a surfactant is attracted to water relative to oil. On Griffin's scale for nonionic surfactants it runs from 0 to 20: low values favor oil, high values favor water.

I

• Imbibition

  Imbibition is the process by which a fluid that preferentially wets a rock displaces a fluid that does not, such as water displacing oil in water-wet rock. When capillary forces alone draw the wetting fluid in, it is called spontaneous imbibition.

• In-furrow application

  An in-furrow application is the placement of a crop input, such as a starter fertilizer, crop protection product or biological, directly into the seed furrow at planting, so it is close to the seed and the emerging roots.

• Industrial and institutional cleaning I&I

  Industrial and institutional (I&I) cleaning is the market for cleaning products and systems used by businesses and institutions rather than households, such as hospitals, schools, hotels, restaurants, food plants and factories. It covers hard surfaces, floors, laundry, warewashing and industrial degreasing.

• Injectivity

  Injectivity is how readily a well and the rock around it accept injected fluid, usually expressed as the injection rate achieved per unit of pressure above reservoir pressure. Falling injectivity means more pressure is needed to inject the same volume.

• Interfacial tension IFT

  Interfacial tension (IFT) is the energy per unit area, or force per unit length, at the boundary between two liquids that do not mix, such as oil and water. Surfactants lower it by adsorbing at that boundary.

• Iron sulfide FeS

  Iron sulfide (FeS) is a black deposit that forms when hydrogen sulfide reacts with iron, often from corroding steel, in oil and gas wells, pipelines and tanks. It causes scale, stabilizes emulsions, promotes corrosion and can be pyrophoric, igniting on exposure to air.

L

• Lease operating expense LOE

  Lease operating expense (LOE) is the recurring cost of keeping producing oil and gas wells running after they are drilled and completed, such as labor, power, chemicals, water handling and routine repairs. It is often expressed per barrel of oil equivalent produced.

• Leveling (coatings)

  Leveling is the ability of a wet coating to flow out after application and form a smooth, even film, eliminating brush marks, roller texture and other surface irregularities before it dries. It is driven by surface tension and opposed by the coating's viscosity.

• Lipopeptide biosurfactant

  A lipopeptide biosurfactant is a surface-active molecule made by microorganisms, mainly Bacillus bacteria, that joins a short chain of amino acids, often closed into a ring, to a fatty acid tail. Surfactin, iturin and fengycin are the best-known examples.

M

• Mannosylerythritol lipid MEL

  A mannosylerythritol lipid (MEL) is a glycolipid biosurfactant produced by certain yeast-like fungi. Its head group combines the sugar mannose with erythritol, a sugar alcohol, and it carries fatty acid chains. MELs are used mainly in cosmetics and personal care.

• Metallurgical recovery

  Metallurgical recovery is the percentage of the valuable metal or mineral in the ore fed to a processing plant that ends up in the final product, such as a concentrate or refined metal. The rest is lost, mainly to the tailings.

• Micelle

  A micelle is a nanometer-scale cluster of surfactant molecules that forms spontaneously in water once the surfactant concentration passes the critical micelle concentration. The molecules' water-repelling tails gather in the core and their water-attracting heads face outward.

• Microbial consortium

  A microbial consortium is a combination of two or more microbial strains or species used together, often in an agricultural biological product, so that organisms with complementary functions, such as nitrogen fixation, root growth promotion and disease suppression, work at the same time.

• Microbial enhanced oil recovery MEOR

  Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is a group of techniques that use microorganisms, or products they make such as biosurfactants, gases and polymers, to help release oil left in a reservoir after conventional production.

• Microbial inoculant

  A microbial inoculant is an agricultural product containing live beneficial microorganisms that is applied to seed, soil or plants so the organisms can establish and benefit the crop. Rhizobia inoculants for legumes are the oldest and most widely used example.

• Microbial strain

  A microbial strain is a genetically distinct variant within a species of bacterium, fungus or other microorganism. Strains of the same species can differ markedly in traits that matter for agricultural products, such as how well they fix nitrogen, colonize roots or survive stress.

• Microemulsion

  A microemulsion is a clear, thermodynamically stable mixture of oil, water and surfactant, often with a co-surfactant, that forms spontaneously. Its oil and water domains are only nanometers to tens of nanometers across, much smaller than the droplets of an ordinary emulsion.

• Mineral liberation

  Mineral liberation is the degree to which grains of a valuable mineral have been freed from the surrounding gangue by crushing and grinding. Only liberated or mostly exposed mineral can be separated efficiently by flotation and other surface-based processes.

• Mineral scale

  Mineral scale is a hard, inorganic deposit that forms when dissolved minerals in water, such as calcium carbonate or barium sulfate, crystallize on surfaces. It builds up in wells, pipes, heat exchangers and equipment and restricts flow and heat transfer.

• Mobility ratio

  Mobility ratio is the mobility of the displacing fluid, such as injected water, divided by the mobility of the fluid being displaced, usually oil. Mobility is a fluid's effective permeability divided by its viscosity. A mobility ratio above 1 is unfavorable and leads to poor sweep.

• Mycorrhizae

  Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations between certain soil fungi and plant roots. The fungi extend a network of fine threads into the soil that gathers water and nutrients, especially phosphorus, for the plant, and the plant supplies the fungi with sugars in return.

N

• Nanopore

  A nanopore is a pore with a diameter measured in nanometers, billionths of a meter. Shale and other tight rocks contain much of their pore space as nanopores, which gives them extremely low permeability and very high capillary pressures.

• Near-wellbore region

  The near-wellbore region is the zone of reservoir rock immediately surrounding a well, typically extending from inches to several feet. All produced or injected fluid passes through it, so its condition has an outsized effect on well performance.

• Nitrogen loss

  Nitrogen loss is the escape of applied or soil nitrogen from the crop root zone before plants can use it. The main pathways are nitrate leaching, denitrification to gases, ammonia volatilization and runoff, and losses reduce yield, waste fertilizer and can harm water and air quality.

• No-till farming

  No-till farming is a way of growing crops without tilling the soil. Seed is planted directly into the residue of the previous crop, disturbing only a narrow strip. It reduces erosion, conserves soil moisture and is a core practice in conservation and regenerative agriculture.

• Nodulation

  Nodulation is the formation of root nodules on a legume, such as soybean, by nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria. The nodules house the bacteria and are where atmospheric nitrogen is converted into a form the plant can use.

• Nonionic surfactant

  A nonionic surfactant is a surfactant whose water-attracting head group carries no electrical charge. Alcohol ethoxylates and alkyl polyglucosides are common examples. Nonionic surfactants tolerate hard water well and are widely used in cleaners and agricultural adjuvants.

• Nutrient use efficiency NUE

  Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is a measure of how effectively a crop converts the nutrients available to it, particularly applied fertilizer, into yield. In practice NUE most often refers to nitrogen use efficiency, and it is expressed through several related ratios rather than one number.

O

• OECD 301

  OECD 301 is a set of six standardized laboratory tests, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, used to determine whether a chemical is readily biodegradable. A substance passes by reaching a set level of breakdown within 28 days.

• Oilfield chemicals

  Oilfield chemicals are the chemical products used to drill, complete, stimulate and produce oil and gas wells and to handle the fluids they produce. They include drilling fluid additives, fracturing and acidizing chemicals, and production chemicals such as corrosion, scale and paraffin inhibitors.

• Ore grade

  Ore grade is the concentration of a valuable metal or mineral in ore, usually expressed as a percentage for base metals such as copper, or in grams per metric ton for precious metals such as gold. It determines how much rock must be mined and processed to produce each unit of metal.

P

• Paraffin deposition

  Paraffin deposition is the buildup of solid wax on tubing, flowlines, tanks and other equipment when crude oil cools below the temperature at which its long-chain paraffin hydrocarbons start to crystallize. Deposits restrict flow and can plug a well or pipeline.

• Particle size distribution PSD

  Particle size distribution (PSD) describes the proportions of different particle sizes in a material such as ground ore. In mineral processing it is often summarized as P80, the size through which 80 percent of the material by mass would pass.

• Permeability

  Permeability is the ability of a porous rock to transmit fluids through its connected pore spaces. It is measured in darcies or millidarcies, and together with porosity it is one of the main properties that determine how easily oil, gas or water can be produced.

• PFAS PFAS

  PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a large family of synthetic chemicals containing chains of carbon atoms bonded to fluorine. The carbon-fluorine bond is extremely stable, so many PFAS barely break down in the environment, earning them the name forever chemicals.

• Phosphorus solubilization

  Phosphorus solubilization is the release of phosphorus that is bound in soil minerals and organic matter into soluble forms that plant roots can absorb. Certain soil bacteria and fungi do this by producing organic acids and enzymes.

• Photosynthetic efficiency

  Photosynthetic efficiency is the share of the light energy reaching a plant that it converts into chemical energy stored in biomass. It is limited by the biochemistry of photosynthesis and reduced further by stress, so crops convert only a small fraction of sunlight into yield.

• Pigment dispersion

  Pigment dispersion is the process of breaking up clumps of dry pigment powder and distributing the individual particles evenly and stably in a liquid such as a paint or ink. It involves wetting the pigment, breaking apart agglomerates and stabilizing the particles against re-clumping.

• Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria PGPR

  Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are bacteria that live in the soil around roots, on root surfaces or inside roots and benefit plant growth, for example by making nutrients available, producing plant hormones or protecting against disease.

• Pore throat

  A pore throat is the narrow passage that connects larger pore spaces in a rock. Pore throat size largely controls a rock's permeability and the capillary pressure needed for a fluid to enter it, making it a key factor in how oil, gas and water move through a reservoir.

• Porosity

  Porosity is the fraction of a rock's volume that is empty space, which can hold fluids such as oil, gas and water. Effective porosity counts only the interconnected pores through which fluids can move. Porosity determines how much fluid a reservoir can store, not how easily it flows.

• Pour point

  The pour point is the lowest temperature at which an oil will still flow under standard test conditions. Below it, wax crystals or high viscosity make the oil behave almost like a solid. For crude oil it is measured by methods such as ASTM D97 and ASTM D5853.

• Precision fermentation

  Precision fermentation is the use of selected or engineered microorganisms, grown under tightly controlled conditions, to produce a specific target molecule such as a protein, enzyme or biosurfactant. The microorganism is the production system, not the product.

• Pregnant leach solution PLS

  Pregnant leach solution (PLS) is the metal-bearing solution that drains from a heap leach or other leaching process after it has dissolved metal from the ore. It is collected and sent for metal recovery, such as solvent extraction and electrowinning for copper.

• Primary recovery

  Primary recovery is the first stage of oil production, in which oil is produced using the reservoir's natural energy, such as gas expansion, water influx and gravity, with help from pumps and other artificial lift. It typically recovers only a small share of the oil in place.

• Produced water

  Produced water is the water that comes to the surface along with oil and gas from a well. It includes water naturally present in the reservoir, injected water and returning fracturing fluid, and it is usually salty, with dissolved minerals, traces of oil and production chemicals.

• Proposition 65 Prop 65

  Proposition 65 is a California law, formally the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, that requires businesses to warn Californians about significant exposures to chemicals the state lists as causing cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

R

• REACH regulation REACH

  REACH is the European Union's main chemicals regulation. Short for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, it requires companies that make or import a substance in the EU in quantities of one metric ton or more per year to register it with the European Chemicals Agency.

• Recovery factor

  Recovery factor is the percentage of the oil or gas originally in place in a reservoir that has been, or is expected to be, produced. It measures how much of the resource a development actually recovers.

• Regenerative agriculture

  Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that aims to improve soil health and the wider environment over time, rather than simply sustaining them, through practices such as minimal tillage, cover crops, diverse rotations and integrating livestock. It has no single legal definition.

• Replicated field trial

  A replicated field trial is an agricultural experiment in which each treatment, such as a product or practice, and an untreated check are applied to several plots arranged randomly across a field. Replication and randomization allow real treatment effects to be separated from natural field variability.

• Residual oil saturation Sor

  Residual oil saturation (Sor) is the fraction of a rock's pore space that is still filled with oil after it has been swept by a displacing fluid such as water. This oil is trapped by capillary forces and will not flow under normal waterflood conditions.

• Reverse flotation

  Reverse flotation is a froth flotation process in which the unwanted gangue minerals are floated off in the froth and the valuable mineral stays behind in the pulp. It is widely used to upgrade iron ore by floating silica away from iron oxides.

• Rhamnolipid

  A rhamnolipid is a glycolipid biosurfactant made mainly by Pseudomonas bacteria. Each molecule joins one or two units of the sugar rhamnose to one or two hydroxylated fatty acids, giving mono-rhamnolipids and di-rhamnolipids.

• Rhizobia

  Rhizobia are soil bacteria that form nodules on the roots of legumes, such as soybeans, peas and alfalfa, and inside those nodules convert nitrogen from the air into a form the plant can use. Each legume partners with specific rhizobial species.

• Rhizosphere

  The rhizosphere is the thin zone of soil immediately surrounding plant roots that is directly influenced by them. Roots release sugars, amino acids and other compounds there, which feed a dense, active community of microorganisms that affects nutrient availability and plant health.

• RSPO RSPO

  RSPO, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, is an organization founded in 2004 that sets environmental and social standards for producing palm oil and certifies producers and supply chains that meet them. Many surfactants and other ingredients are derived from palm and palm kernel oil.

S

• Saltwater disposal well SWD

  A saltwater disposal (SWD) well is a well used to inject produced water and other oilfield brines deep underground into a formation that can accept and permanently hold them. In the United States these are Class II injection wells, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

• Scale inhibitor

  A scale inhibitor is a chemical that prevents or slows the formation of mineral scale from water, usually at very low concentrations, by interfering with how scale crystals form and grow. Phosphonates and polymers such as polyacrylates are common types.

• Scale squeeze

  A scale squeeze is a treatment in which scale inhibitor is pumped down a producing well and into the surrounding formation, where it is retained on the rock and then released slowly into the produced water, protecting the well and near-wellbore area from mineral scale for months.

• Shut-in

  To shut in a well is to close it so that it stops producing or injecting, typically by closing valves at the wellhead. Wells are shut in for maintenance, testing, low prices, regulatory reasons or weather, and restarting them can bring problems such as wax, emulsions and water blocks.

• Soil carbon sequestration

  Soil carbon sequestration is the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by plants and its storage in soil as organic carbon. Farming practices that add more plant carbon to the soil and reduce its loss can increase soil carbon over time.

• Soil compaction

  Soil compaction is the pressing together of soil particles, which reduces the pore space between them. Compacted soil holds less air, lets water in more slowly and physically resists root growth, which can reduce crop yield.

• Soil conditioner

  A soil conditioner is a material added to soil to improve its physical properties, such as structure, aeration, water infiltration and water-holding capacity, rather than to supply nutrients. Examples include compost, gypsum, polymers and soil surfactants.

• Soil health

  Soil health is the continued capacity of a soil to function as a living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals and people. A healthy soil holds and supplies water and nutrients, supports roots and soil life, cycles organic matter and resists erosion.

• Soil microbiome

  The soil microbiome is the community of microorganisms living in soil, including bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists and viruses. These organisms decompose organic matter, cycle nutrients, build soil structure and influence plant health.

• Soil organic matter SOM

  Soil organic matter (SOM) is the fraction of soil made of living organisms, fresh and decomposing plant and animal residues, and stable, well-decomposed material called humus. Although it usually makes up only a few percent of soil by weight, it strongly affects fertility, structure and water holding.

• Soil redeposition

  Soil redeposition is the settling of soil that has already been removed during washing back onto fabrics or surfaces from the wash water. It causes graying and dullness over repeated washes. Detergents use antiredeposition agents to keep removed soil suspended until it is rinsed away.

• Soil surfactant

  A soil surfactant, also called a soil wetting agent, is a surfactant applied to soil or growing media to help water enter, spread and move through it more evenly. Soil surfactants are used to overcome water repellency in turf, horticultural media and some agricultural soils.

• Soil water repellency

  Soil water repellency is a condition in which soil resists wetting, so water beads on the surface or flows through narrow paths instead of soaking in evenly. It is caused by water-repellent organic coatings on soil particles and is most common in dry, sandy soils.

• Solubilization

  Solubilization is the process by which surfactant micelles take up a substance that is poorly soluble in water, such as an oil or fragrance, and carry it in solution. It occurs above the critical micelle concentration and produces a clear, stable liquid.

• Solvent extraction and electrowinning SX-EW

  Solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX-EW) is a two-step process for producing high-purity copper cathode from leach solutions. Solvent extraction transfers copper from the leach solution into a clean, concentrated electrolyte, and electrowinning plates the copper out of that electrolyte using electricity.

• Sophorolipid

  A sophorolipid is a glycolipid biosurfactant made by certain yeasts, principally Starmerella bombicola. Each molecule joins the sugar sophorose to a hydroxylated fatty acid, and it occurs in two main forms: an open acidic form and a closed ring, or lactonic, form.

• Spray drift

  Spray drift is the movement of spray droplets or vapor away from the intended target during or after an agricultural application. It wastes product, reduces control on the target, and can harm nearby crops, people and the environment.

• Starmerella bombicola

  Starmerella bombicola is a yeast, formerly named Candida bombicola, that is the main commercial producer of sophorolipid biosurfactants. Grown on sugar and plant oil, it secretes sophorolipids in unusually large quantities.

• Stripper well

  A stripper well, or marginal well, is an oil or gas well producing at very low rates near the end of its economic life. In the United States the term commonly means an oil well producing 15 barrels of oil equivalent per day or less, or a gas well producing 90 thousand cubic feet per day or less.

• Sulfate-free surfactant

  A sulfate-free surfactant system is one formulated without sulfate surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), usually in pursuit of milder products or to avoid ethoxylated ingredients. Sulfate-free is a marketing description, not a regulated term.

• Surface tension

  Surface tension is the energy per unit area, or force per unit length, at the surface of a liquid where it meets a gas such as air. It arises because molecules at the surface have fewer like neighbors to attract them than molecules inside the liquid.

• Surfactant

  A surfactant, short for surface-active agent, is a compound that lowers the surface tension of a liquid, or the interfacial tension between two phases, by adsorbing at the boundary between them. Each molecule has a water-attracting head and a water-repelling tail.

• Surfactant adsorption

  Surfactant adsorption is the attachment of surfactant molecules to a surface, such as reservoir rock, soil, pigment or fabric. It is how surfactants do much of their work, but in oilfield and soil applications it also removes surfactant from solution before it reaches its target.

• Surfactant flooding

  Surfactant flooding is a chemical enhanced oil recovery method in which a surfactant solution is injected into a reservoir to lower the interfacial tension between oil and water, often to ultralow values, so that oil trapped by capillary forces can be displaced toward producing wells.

• Sweep efficiency

  Sweep efficiency is the fraction of a reservoir that an injected fluid, such as water, actually contacts as it moves from injection wells to producing wells. Oil in parts of the reservoir the fluid bypasses is not displaced, however efficient the fluid is where it does flow.

T

• Tailings

  Tailings are the waste left after the valuable minerals have been extracted from ore: a slurry of finely ground rock, water and residual process chemicals. They are stored in engineered facilities, most often behind dams, and increasingly dewatered before storage.

• Tank-mix compatibility

  Tank-mix compatibility is whether two or more crop inputs, such as pesticides, fertilizers, adjuvants and biologicals, can be combined in one spray tank without separating, forming solids, losing effectiveness or injuring the crop.

• Tank bottoms

  Tank bottoms are the sludge that accumulates at the bottom of oil storage tanks: a mixture of heavy hydrocarbons, paraffin, asphaltenes, emulsified water, sand, corrosion products and other solids. They reduce storage capacity and must be periodically removed and processed or disposed of.

• Thickener

  A thickener is a large settling tank used in mineral processing and water treatment to separate solids from a slurry by gravity. Solids settle to form a dense underflow, and clarified water overflows the top for reuse.

• Total dissolved solids TDS

  Total dissolved solids (TDS) is the total concentration of minerals, salts and other substances dissolved in water, usually reported in milligrams per liter. It is the standard measure of how salty or mineralized a water is, from drinking water to oilfield brine.

• Toxic Substances Control Act TSCA

  The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the main U.S. federal law regulating industrial chemicals. It gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to review new chemicals before they are made or imported, maintain the TSCA Inventory of chemicals in commerce, and restrict chemicals that pose unreasonable risk.

• Trichoderma

  Trichoderma is a genus of fungi common in soil and around roots. Selected strains of species such as Trichoderma harzianum are used in agriculture to suppress plant diseases, promote root growth and improve plant tolerance to stress.

• Turbidity NTU

  Turbidity is the cloudiness of water caused by suspended particles that scatter light, such as clay, silt, fine mineral particles or microorganisms. It is usually measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) and is a standard indicator of water clarity.

U

• Unconventional reservoir

  An unconventional reservoir is an oil or gas accumulation, such as shale, tight sandstone or coalbed methane, whose permeability is too low for wells to produce economically without special techniques, typically horizontal drilling and multistage hydraulic fracturing.

• USDA BioPreferred

  USDA BioPreferred is a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, created by the 2002 Farm Bill, that promotes biobased products through federal purchasing requirements and the voluntary USDA Certified Biobased Product label, which states a product's tested biobased content.

V

• Volatile organic compound VOC

  A volatile organic compound (VOC) is a carbon-based chemical that evaporates readily at room temperature. In U.S. air quality regulation, VOCs are those that take part in the reactions forming ground-level ozone, which is why coatings, cleaners and other products face VOC limits.

W

• Water-oil ratio WOR

  The water-oil ratio (WOR) is the volume of water a well or field produces divided by the volume of oil it produces over the same period. A WOR of 5 means five barrels of water for every barrel of oil. It rises as fields mature and strongly affects operating costs.

• Water block

  A water block is a reduction in the flow of oil or gas caused by water held in the rock near a well or fracture face. Capillary forces trap the water in small pores, lowering the rock's permeability to hydrocarbons.

• Water cut

  Water cut is the share of a well's total produced liquid that is water, expressed as a percentage. Oil cut is the complementary share that is oil. A rising water cut means more water must be lifted, separated and disposed of for each barrel of oil.

• Waterflooding

  Waterflooding is the injection of water into an oil reservoir through injection wells to maintain reservoir pressure and push oil toward producing wells. It is the most common method of secondary recovery.

• Water hardness

  Water hardness is the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water, usually expressed as milligrams per liter of calcium carbonate. Hard water reduces the performance of soaps, surfactants and some pesticides, and causes scale in pipes and equipment.

• Water infiltration

  Water infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface, from rain or irrigation, enters the soil. The infiltration rate is how fast that happens, usually in inches or millimeters per hour. Poor infiltration leads to runoff, ponding and erosion.

• Wax appearance temperature WAT

  Wax appearance temperature (WAT) is the temperature at which wax crystals first begin to form as a crude oil cools. Below it, paraffin can deposit on surfaces. For crude oil it is also called the cloud point.

• Well completion

  Well completion is the set of operations that prepares a drilled well to produce oil or gas safely and efficiently. It includes installing and cementing casing, perforating, stimulation such as hydraulic fracturing, and installing tubing and production equipment.

• Well stimulation

  Well stimulation is any treatment that restores or increases the flow of oil, gas or water between a well and the reservoir by improving the rock around the well. Hydraulic fracturing and acidizing are the two main methods.

• Wettability

  Wettability is the tendency of a rock surface to be in contact with one fluid in preference to another when both are present, usually water or oil. Reservoir rock is described as water-wet, oil-wet, intermediate or mixed-wet, and its wettability controls how oil and water move through it.

• Wetting

  Wetting is the ability of a liquid to spread over and stay in contact with a solid surface. It depends on the balance between the liquid's attraction to the surface and to itself, and it is usually measured by the contact angle a droplet makes with the surface.

• Wickerhamomyces

  Wickerhamomyces is a genus of yeasts found in soil, on plants and in foods. Its best-known species, Wickerhamomyces anomalus, formerly classified as Pichia anomala, is studied and used for its tolerance of harsh conditions and its ability to suppress spoilage and plant-pathogenic fungi.

Y

• Yield potential

  Yield potential is the yield a crop variety can achieve when grown in a given environment with ample water and nutrients and with pests, diseases and weeds effectively controlled. The difference between yield potential and the yield actually achieved is the yield gap.