This paper describes a crosslinking material derived fromnatural sources. This material can be used with a variety ofpolymers over a broad temperature range to produce gels forconformance applications.Delayed cross-linked polymer systems have been used formany years in conformance applications. For the past decade,the most widely used system has been based on chromium(3+) cross-linked polyacrylamide. Organic crosslinkers, suchas phenol/formaldehyde and polyethyleneimine have also beenused with a variety of polymers. However, these systems arebeing scrutinized by regulatory agencies and have now beenscheduled for phase-out in some countries. Because of theseissues, a single, environmentally friendly crosslinker thatcould be used with a variety of polymers over a broadtemperature range was selected for study.This paper details the laboratory development of anenvironmentally friendly, natural polyamine crosslinkersystem. This crosslinker can be used with a variety ofpolymers, such as polyacrylamide, AMPS/acrylamide, oralkylacrylate polymers. Gels ranging from stiff and “ringing”type to “lipping” gels have been obtained. Recent efforts havetargeted designing chitosan-based gel compositions. Theseefforts included not only using chitosan as the base polymer incombination with a synthetic polymeric cross-linker, but alsodeveloping gels derived completely from natural polymers.Results from these studies will be presented.
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