Specialty & Oilfield Grade PAM
Beyond standard water treatment, we supply specialty PAM grades for demanding applications: PHPA for enhanced oil recovery and drilling fluids, plus PAM options for sugar, starch, and process-water projects where buyer-specific documents must be confirmed before ordering.
Specialty polyacrylamide is separated from the standard catalogue for one reason: the grade is specified against a process variable rather than against a floc. A water-treatment flocculant is judged on settling rate and supernatant clarity. An oilfield polymer is judged on viscosity that survives brine, heat, and shear, sometimes for months of continuous injection. The base chemistry overlaps, the specification targets do not, and a grade chosen on molecular weight alone will usually disappoint in the field.
That distinction shapes how these grades are quoted. Water chemistry has to come before price. A PHPA that performs well at 5,000 ppm TDS can lose most of its useful viscosity at 30,000 ppm if the chemistry was never designed for hard brine, and no amount of extra dosage recovers it economically. The same applies at the other end of the catalogue: sugar and starch grades are quoted against the documents a buyer must satisfy, not against a generic food-contact claim.
There is a commercial consequence too. Specialty grades are produced to a confirmed specification rather than pulled from a standing stock of general-purpose flocculant, so the specification conversation happens before the price conversation rather than after it. Buyers used to commodity flocculant purchasing sometimes read that as friction. In practice it is the step that prevents the expensive version of this problem, which is a full container of polymer that meets its datasheet and still cannot do the job in front of it.
Oilfield PAM selection by duty
Buyers usually arrive knowing the job rather than the grade name. This table maps the five duties we are asked about most often to a starting grade, the variable that actually decides success, and a working dosage range. Treat the dosages as starting points for your own testing rather than as a specification.
| Duty | Starting grade | What decides performance | Working dosage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Polymer flooding (EOR) | PHPA, 15–25 million Da, 25–35% hydrolysis | Viscosity retained at reservoir salinity and temperature | 1,000–2,500 ppm in injection water |
| Drilling fluid viscosifier | PHPA, lower half of the 15–25 million Da range | Filtration loss control and yield point | 0.5–3 kg/m³ of mud |
| Shale inhibition and cuttings encapsulation | PHPA, low-MW end of range | Encapsulation without over-viscosifying the mud | 0.5–2 kg/m³ |
| Slickwater friction reduction | Anionic friction reducer, emulsion or dry | Fast inversion and hydration at the blender | 0.25–1 kg/m³ (roughly 0.5–2 gpt) |
| Produced-water clarification | CPAM or APAM selected by oil-in-water charge | Droplet coalescence, not viscosity | 2–10 ppm, confirmed by jar test |
Dosages are representative ranges from common oilfield practice. Actual requirements shift with water chemistry, reservoir conditions, and equipment. For duty-specific detail see our notes on polymer flooding for EOR, drilling mud additives, and slickwater friction reducers.
Three limits that decide field performance
Most disappointing polymer results trace back to one of three variables rather than to product quality. Each one has a rough operating window and a physical reason behind it, and each one is worth confirming before a grade is fixed.
Salinity (TDS)
Standard PHPA up to roughly 10,000 ppm TDS
Salt-tolerant grades for 30,000 ppm TDS and above
Divalent calcium and magnesium screen the anionic charge, the chain coils, and viscosity collapses. Salt-tolerant chemistry holds the chain extended in hard brine.
Temperature
Typically stable through roughly 70–80 °C in moderate brine
Hotter reservoirs need grade confirmation before quotation
Past its stability window the polymer keeps hydrolysing, then precipitates with the calcium and magnesium already in the brine. Reservoir temperature has to be stated up front.
Shear
Degradation at pumps, chokes, and perforations
Grade and make-up procedure adjusted together
High-molecular-weight chains break irreversibly under shear, and the loss is permanent. Injection design and make-up water matter as much as the grade on the bag.
These three interact rather than acting independently. A grade that holds viscosity at 30,000 ppm TDS at ambient temperature can still fail at the same salinity once reservoir heat is added, because hydrolysis continues in service and eventually the polymer meets more divalent cations than it can tolerate. Screening should therefore combine the conditions, not test them one at a time. Industry method guidance from the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the American Petroleum Institute is the usual reference point for how those screens are run and reported.
Specialty grades
PHPA Oilfield Grade
Partially hydrolyzed PAM for EOR polymer flooding, drilling fluids, shale inhibition, and oilfield water treatment with confirmed test data.
MW: 15–25 million Da
Applications: Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) — polymer flooding, Drilling fluid viscosifier & shale inhibitor
PAM for Sugar & Starch Processing
Low-residual-monomer PAM option for sugar, starch, and food-processing wastewater projects.
MW: 10–18 million Da
Applications: Sugar processing wastewater, Starch recovery wastewater
FLOPAAM 3630S Equivalent — EOR Polyacrylamide
High molecular weight partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide positioned against FLOPAAM 3630S for polymer flooding and enhanced oil recovery. Free trial sample with viscosity data.
MW: Very high (our scale)
Applications: Polymer flooding for enhanced oil recovery, Mobility control in waterflood injection
Sugar, starch, and process-water grades
The second half of this category serves sugar mills, starch plants, and food-processing effluent, where the flocculation duty is ordinary but the documentation is not. These projects usually need a low-residual-monomer specification, and residual monomer is a batch property confirmed on the COA rather than a fixed catalogue value. That is the distinction worth holding on to when comparing suppliers: a datasheet states a target, a COA states what a specific lot actually measured.
We quote these grades against your process and your document list rather than against a generic food-contact claim. Regulatory frameworks differ by market, the approvals that matter in one importing country are not the ones that matter in another, and assuming a certificate is included is how buyers end up holding stock they cannot use. Naming the required documents at enquiry stage costs nothing and settles the question before a container moves. Related reading: PAM in the sugar industry and food-grade water clarification.
Documents to confirm before ordering
Every specialty order should close with these four items agreed in writing. The fourth one is the item buyers most often skip, and it is the one that makes competing quotations comparable.
| Document | What to check on it |
|---|---|
| Grade-specific TDS | Confirm the molecular weight range, hydrolysis degree, and solid content match the duty in the table above, not a neighbouring grade. |
| Batch COA | Must reference the lot being shipped. For sugar and starch grades this is where residual monomer and heavy metals are actually confirmed. |
| SDS | Needed for freight booking and site handling. Confirm the language and format your port and plant require. |
| Viscosity test conditions | For EOR grades, get concentration, brine composition, temperature, and shear rate alongside the number. Without them the figure is not comparable. |
Ordering specialty grades from a factory in China
Order sizing differs sharply across this category, and it is worth setting expectations early. Sugar, starch, and process-water grades follow normal catalogue terms: a 500 kg trial quantity is enough to run jar tests and a short plant trial, and repeat orders scale from there. Oilfield polymer does not work that way. Polymer flooding is dosed in the thousands of ppm rather than single-digit ppm, so even a modest pilot consumes tonnes, and full-scale injection is planned as a monthly supply schedule against an injection curve rather than as a series of one-off purchases.
Production runs to order for these grades, with standard export packaging in 25 kg bags, kraft paper with a plastic liner or PE, and typical lead time of 7–10 days for common grades once the order is confirmed. Salt-tolerant and other adjusted formulations take longer because they are scheduled rather than drawn from stock, so tell us the target date alongside the specification. Payment is by T/T or L/C, and free samples ship before bulk confirmation so testing happens before money moves.
One practical note on comparing quotations: for EOR grades, ask every supplier for the viscosity test conditions rather than the viscosity number alone. Concentration, brine composition, temperature, and shear rate change the result by more than the difference between competing products, and quotations that omit those conditions cannot be compared at all. The same logic applies to drilling grades: a yield point measured in fresh water says very little about behaviour in the brine actually circulating in your system, so ask which fluid the number came from. If you want the broader factory background first, our China PAM supplier profile and oil drilling application guide cover it in more detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between PHPA and standard anionic polyacrylamide?
PHPA is partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide, and the hydrolysis degree is the controlled variable. Oilfield PHPA is held at roughly 25–35% hydrolysis so the chain stays extended in brine and delivers viscosity. Water-treatment APAM is optimised for charge density and bridging instead, so it flocculates well but is not specified for viscosity retention under salinity, temperature, and shear. Both are anionic polyacrylamides; the specification target is what differs.
What data do you need before quoting an oilfield PAM grade?
For polymer flooding: injection water TDS and divalent hardness, reservoir temperature, target viscosity at reservoir shear rate, and injection rate. For drilling fluids: mud system type (water-based or brine), required yield point and filtration loss, and formation reactivity. For friction reducers: water source, brine tolerance needed, and whether the blender needs a dry or emulsion product. Without water chemistry, any viscosity number quoted is a laboratory figure and not a field expectation.
How much PHPA is needed for a polymer flooding pilot?
Polymer flooding consumes far more material than a water-treatment programme, because concentration is measured in thousands of ppm rather than single-digit ppm. A pilot is normally sized in tonnes rather than kilograms, and full-scale injection runs on a monthly supply schedule. Tell us injection rate and target concentration and we can convert that into a monthly tonnage and a shipping plan.
Can I test a specialty grade before committing to bulk volume?
Yes. Free samples are available for jar testing, rheology screening, and mud-system compatibility checks, and the standard trial MOQ is 500 kg for grades sold in that format. For EOR polymer we recommend a viscosity screen in your own injection water first, because make-up water chemistry changes the result more than any other single variable.
Do the sugar and starch grades come with regulated-use approvals?
Do not assume regulated-use approvals are included. These grades are quoted against your process, target specification, and the specific documents you need. Residual monomer and heavy metals are confirmed by batch COA rather than assumed from the datasheet. If a regulated application requires a particular certificate, say so before ordering so availability can be confirmed rather than discovered late.
Which documents should I review before a specialty PAM order?
Ask for the grade-specific TDS, the batch COA for the lot you will actually receive, and the SDS. For oilfield grades, also ask for the viscosity method behind any quoted figure — concentration, brine composition, temperature, and shear rate — because a viscosity number without its test conditions cannot be compared between suppliers.
Oilfield, sugar, starch, or process-water project? We can prepare TDS, COA, and SDS by confirmed grade and batch.
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