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Polymers from Biomass Widely Spread in the Oil Industry

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Industrial Applications of Renewable Biomass Products

Abstract

In 1949, the first commercial fracturing treatment was performed by Stanolind Oil and Gas Company (Pan American Energy at present) for increasing well productivity. That is how the most outstanding well stimulation procedures that industry ever known began. Since this technique was spread wide world, many natural polymers such as guar, modified guar, xanthan gums, and also modified cellulose, among others, were used as gelant agents.

Another oil field application of natural polymer is as part of chemical enhanced oil recovery techniques. Although partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide is the most common macromolecule used for polymer flooding, xanthan gum, schizophyllan, and scleroglucan found also applicability due to their resistance to reservoir harsh conditions of hardness, salinity, and/or temperature.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge R. S. Seright for his suggestions over the xanthan in EOR topic. We also thank A. W. Chitty who contributed with technical discussions during the elaboration of this chapter.

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Correspondence to Isabel Natalia Vega .

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Vega, I.N., Hernández, M.I. (2017). Polymers from Biomass Widely Spread in the Oil Industry. In: Goyanes, S., D’Accorso, N. (eds) Industrial Applications of Renewable Biomass Products. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61288-1_8

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