Guar gum Ganganagar and Hanumangarh in Rajasthan are the major Guar trading markets. The United States has produced 4,600 to 14,000 tonnes of guar over the last 5 years. Texas acreage since 1999 has fluctuated from about 7,000 to 50,000 acres. The world production for guar gum and its derivatives is about 1.0 Million tonnes. Non-food guar gum accounts for about 40% of the total demand. Mainly it is used as a proppant transport / proppant suspending agent in hydraulic fracturing. At its peak the price was $8000 per ton. Chemically, guar gum is an exo-polysaccharide composed of the sugars galactose and
Guar gum are preferred as thickeners for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Guar gum and its derivatives account for most of the gelled fracturing fluids. Guar is more water-soluble than other gums, and it is also a better emulsifier, because it has more galactose branch points. Guar gum shows high low-shear viscosity, but it is strongly shear-thinning. Being non-ionic, it is not affected by ionic strength or pH but will degrade at low pH at moderate temperature (pH 3 at 50 °C). Guar's derivatives demonstrate stability in high temperature and pH environments. Guar use allows for achieving exceptionally high viscosities, which improves the