In many industrial processes, such as in bioreactors that produce fuels or pharmaceuticals, foam can get in the way. Frothy bubbles can take up a lot of space, limiting the volume available for making the product and sometimes gumming up pipes and valves or damaging living cells. Companies spend an estimated $3 billion a year on chemical additives called defoamers, but these can affect the purity of the product and may require extra processing steps for their removal.
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Source: Phys.org