Preliminary evaluation of gellan gum as mud thickener

Gellan gum (GLG) is a biopolymer widely used in food industry. This paper investigates the potential of high acyl GLG as additive for drilling mud. The impacts of temperature, sodium, potassium and calcium ions on mud properties were tested. Experiments show that GLG is able to effectively increase viscosity of drilling mud, but has no significant effect on filtrate loss. Gellan gum, in a unique way, boosts mud viscosity more effectively at elevated temperature. Low concentrations of sodium and potassium ions cause mud viscosity to escalate, but mud properties stabilize at high concentrations of monovalent ions. On the other hand, calcium ion depresses mud viscosity and yield point. This study demonstrates that GLG has the potential to be employed as mud thickener in drilling operations. © 2015, The Author(s).