Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide that bacterium known as Xanthomonas campestris secrets. This gum is a good food additive as well as a modifier of rheology. It gum is also useful as thickening agent of food items such as salad dressing or as a stabiliser in many cosmetic products to prevent separation of various ingredients in the items. Xanthan gum is composed of five sugars, apart from glucuronic acid, mannose and glucose. The molar ratio of this compound is 2.8: 2.0:2.0. This gum can be obtained by fermentation of glucose, lactose or sucrose. When the fermentation period is completed, the polysaccharide will be precipitated from a standard growth medium, such as isopropyl alcohol. After precipitation, the gum will be dried and get ground into fine powder form. Finally, it gets added to some liquid medium to form the final product which the suppliers offer to their consumers.
Synthesis Process of Xanthan Gum
Synthesis of Xanthan gum originates from glucose as the standard substrate to synthesise sugar nucleotide precursors, such as UDP-glucuronate, UDP-glucose, and UDP-mannose. These precursors are necessary to build the repeat unit of pentasaccharide. This process links Xanthan synthesis to the central metabolism of carbohydrate. The suppliers build the repeat units using undecaprenyl-phosphate lipid carriers. These carries are normally anchored in cytoplasmic membranes. Particular glycosyltranserases transfer nucleotide sugar precursors of Xanthan sugar moieties sequentially to lipid carriers. The producers then add residues of pyruvyl and acetyl residues as non-carbohydrate decorations. Whey powder, a byproduct during cheese production, is mostly a combination of lactose and water. When the X. campestris bacterium, that grows easily on lactose is added to whey powder, Xanthan gum is produced. It is widely used in several commercial products such as salad dressings, shampoos, etc.
Polyanionic Cellulose
Polyanionic cellulose or PAC is derived from cellulose. PAC is mainly used in oilfield practice. Though PAC and CMC or carboxymethyl cellulose get manufactured from same raw materials, the final products are different through the adjustmnet of the type of stoichiometry and cellulose of the reactants. The main difference between the production processes of both these products is the step of radicalisation. Basically, polyanionic cellulose is a type of water soluble cellulose ether. It is a derivative of natural cellulose through chemical modification. It is very important water soluble cellulose ether. Normally, the sodium salt of polyanionic cellulose is widely used by people involved with petroleum drilling, particularly in offshore oil drilling and salt well drilling. Polyanionic cellulose supplier offers this non-toxic, tasteless product in white or light yellow particles or powder. It solves easily in both cold and hot water and it is also strong in hygroscopicity.
Polyanionic cellulose polymer possesses excellent heat resistant stability, strong antibacterial activity, and is salt tolerant. The fluid or slurry prepared from polyanionic cellulose has higher capacity to reduce fluid loss, greater temperature tolerance, and rejection capability. Hence, it is one of the main fluids used in offshore oil drilling Xanthan Gum or salt well drilling. The drilling mud is suspended matter of solid in an aqueous solution. Similar to other types of colloidal suspension dispersions, drilling mud has limited life period. Polyanionic cellulose supplier helps in keeping the drilling mud stable and prolonging its life period. The mixture of polyanionic cellulose with drilling mud will form solid but thin shaft wall and remain as filter cake having low permeability. This reduces hole shrinkage in drilling and also prevents collapse phenomena that results from water loss of drilling mud.
