Guar gum an oil or natural gas reservoir at a high pressure and flow rate. This cracks the reservoir rock and then props the cracks open. Water alone is too thin to be effective at carrying proppant sand, so guar gum is one of the ingredients added to thicken the slurry mixture and improve its ability to carry proppant. There are several properties which are important 1. Thixotropic: the fluid should be thixotropic, meaning it should gel within few hours. 2. Gelling and degelling: The desired viscosity changes over the course of a few hours. When the fracking slurry is mixed, it
Guar gum for humans and animals. Because it is gluten-free, it's also used as an additive to replace wheat flour in baked goods. It has also been shown to be beneficial to health. It has been shown to reduce serum cholesterol and lower blood glucose levels. Additional benefits have been seen in one's efforts to lose weight where, when ingested, its water-absorbing properties cause it to swell in the stomach giving one that 'full' sensation sooner. Guar gum is economical as well. Because it has almost eight times the water-thickening ability of other agents, cornstarch for example, only a very small quantity