Drag reduction effectiveness, shear stability and biodegradation resistance of guargum-based graft copolymers

Guargum is a seed galactomannan and is known to be a shear stable drag reducing agent. However, the aqueous solutions of guargum are very susceptible to microbial degradation. In the present investigation, seven graft copolymers of guargum and polyacrylamide have been synthesized and their drag reduction effectiveness, shear stability, and biodegradation resistance have been determined. It has been shown that the drag reduction effectiveness and shear stability of the graft copolymer depend upon the length of the graft and number of grafts in the molecule. None of the graft copolymer solutions show any microbial degradation up to 10 days.