. 2020 Oct 21;12(10):2429. doi: 10.3390/polym12102429

Table 8.

Ranking of polymers based on merit and demerits. Some of the data presented were obtained from the study by [22] with additional modifications.

Polymer Chemistry	Polymer Family	Synthetic	Biopolymer
Polymer Chemistry	Polymer Type	HPAM	Scleroglucan	Schizophyllan	Xanthan Gum
Range of application	Highest temperature limit (°C)	60	95	120	75–90
Range of application	Lowest permeability limit (mD)	5	200	150–300	100
Pros and cons involved	$Salinity tolerance (ppm \times 10^{3})$	0.1–10	20–165	30–280	20–220
	Tolerance for shear resistance	$\times \times \times$	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt$
	Tolerance to biodegradation	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\times \times \times$	$\times \times \times$	$\times \times$
	Industrial availability	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\times$	$\times$	$\sqrt \sqrt$
	Cost economics (USD/kg)	5–11	30–50	8.5–11	1.5–3
	Logistics and handling	$\sqrt \sqrt$	$\times \times$	$\times \times$	$\sqrt \sqrt$
Application cases	Lab (Experiment)	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\times$	$\sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$
	Pilot	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt$	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$
	Field	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$	$\times \times \times$	$\times \times \times$	$\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt$

( $(\sqrt \sqrt \sqrt)$ ) = Excellent, ( $(\sqrt \sqrt)$ ) = better, ( $(\sqrt)$ ) = good, ( $\times$ ) = poor, ( $\times \times$ ) = poorer, and ( $\times \times \times$ ) = poorest.