REVIEW ARTICLE Biosurfactants during in situ bioremediation: factors that influence the production and challenges in evalution Andressa Decesaro 1 & Thaís Strieder Machado 1 & Ângela Carolina Cappellaro 1 & Christian Oliveira Reinehr 1 & Antônio Thomé 1 & Luciane Maria Colla 1 Received: 25 April 2017 /Accepted: 14 July 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract Research on the influence of biosurfactants on the efficiency of in situ bioremediation of contaminated soil is continuously growing. Despite the constant progress in under- standing the mechanisms involved in the effects of biosurfactants, there are still many factors that are not suffi- ciently elucidated. There is a lack of research on autochtho- nous or exogenous microbial metabolism when biostimula- tion or bioaugmentation is carried out to produce biosurfactants at contaminated sites. In addition, studies on the application of techniques that measure the biosurfactants produced in situ are needed. This is important because, al- though the positive influence of biosurfactants is often report- ed, there are also studies where no effect or negative effects have been observed. This review aimed to examine some studies on factors that can improve the production of biosurfactants in soils during in situ bioremediation. Moreover, this work reviews the methodologies that can be used for measuring the production of these biocomposts. We reviewed studies on the potential of biosurfactants to improve the bioremediation of hydrocarbons, as well as the limitations of methods for the production of these biomolecules by mi- croorganisms in soil. Keywords Contaminated soil . Hydrocarbons . Biodegradation . Microbial surfactant Introduction Despite recent efforts to expand renewable energy sources, the world market still relies on non-renewable sources of energy such as oil, which is a complex mixture of different hydrocarbons and other organic compounds (Ma et al. 2016 ). Some of these compounds present in oil contain pollutants that have low solubility in water and are therefore difficult to remove from the environment (Ángeles and Refugio 2013 ). Thus, the use of these fuels leads to serious problems related to air, water and soil pollution, and is a risk to human health and ecosystems. Removal of petroleum derivatives in contaminated soils can be made with the use of chemical products like surfactants and solvents (Kanaly and Harayama 2010). However, most of the surfactants used are only partially biodegradable or de- graded very slowly so that they contribute to environmental pollution (Henkel et al. 2012). Therefore, there is more interest in finding alternatives that are more environmentally friendly and economically viable (Deepika et al. 2016), such as bio- logical methods, highlighting bioremediation. Bioremediation techniques involve natural attenuation, bioaugmentation, and biostimulation, which are considered promising strategies that can replace traditional Responsible editor: Diane Purchase * Luciane Maria Colla lmcolla@upf.br Andressa Decesaro andressa_decesaro@hotmail.com Thaís Strieder Machado thaiis.strieder@hotmail.com Ângela Carolina Cappellaro angelzir@hotmail.com Christian Oliveira Reinehr reinehr@upf.br Antônio Thomé thome@upf.br; lmcolla@upf.br 1 Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Postgraduate Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Passo Fundo, Campus I, L1 Building, BR 285, km 171, Zip Code 611, Bairro São José, Passo Fundo, RS CEP: 99052-900, Brazil Environ Sci Pollut Res DOI 10.1007/s11356-017-9778-7