Biopolymers Produced by Sphingomonas Strains and Their Potential Applications in Petroleum Production

The genus Sphingomonas was established by Yabuuchi et al. in 1990, and has attracted much attention in recent years due to its unique ability to degrade environmental pollutants. Some Sphingomonas species can secrete high-molecular-weight extracellular polymers called sphingans, most of which are acidic heteropolysaccharides. Typical sphingans include welan gum, gellan gum, and diutan gum. Most sphingans have a typical, conserved main chain structure, and differences of side chain groups lead to different rheological characteristics, such as shear thinning, temperature or salt resistance, and viscoelasticity. In petroleum production applications, sphingans, and their structurally modified derivatives can replace partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in high-temperature and high-salt reservoirs, while also being able to replace guar gum as a fracturing fluid thickener. This paper focuses on the applications of sphingans and their derivatives in EOR.